In vitro characterization of the metabolic pathways of four new synthetic cannabinoids

Synthetic cannabinoids are a class of novel psychoactive substances originally developed to explore the function and structure of cannabinoid receptors. At present, they have found great popularity into the world of “recreational” drug use, being among the most widely diffused of the new psychoactive substances. Indeed more than a hundred different varieties of synthetic cannabinoids have been synthetized so far, making their detection in herbal products and in biological fluids a demanding c...

Large volume injection: improving the detection capacity of endogenous anabolic steroids by GC-C-IRMS

The 13C/12C ratio, expressed as δ13C (‰) value, is determined through a GC-C-IRMS (gas chromatography combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry) analysis to discriminate the exogenous or endogenous origin of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), included in the list of prohibited substances and methods published yearly by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The GC-C-IRMS method is a confirmation procedure performed in all accredited doping laboratories when urinary concentration of specific s...

Elucidation of the biotrasformation pathways of new designer drugs by chromatography-mass spectrometry following in vitro metabolism studies

Besides the amphetamine-type designer drugs, which have been widely abused for decades, recently a number of new psychoactive substances (i.e. cannabimimetics, b-keto amphetamines and 2,5-dimethoxy amphetamines, 2,5- phenylamines, b-keto amphetamines, phencyclidines, piperazines, pyrrolidinophenones, fentanyls, piperidines, and tryptamine derivatives) have been made available on the illicit drug market [1-6]. The continual emergence and rapid diffusion of those compounds not only pose a serio...

Characterization of phospholipid-based drugs and their effect on phospholipids profiles in biological fluids assessed by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS: diagnostic and forensic implications