Institute of Forensic Medicine, University Medical Center Freiburg, Albertstr. 9, 79104, Freiburg, Germany.
J Mass Spectrom. 2012 Jul;47(7):825-35. doi: 10.1002/jms.3020.
The analysis of synthetic cannabinoids in human matrices is of particular importance in the fields of forensic and clinical toxicology since cannabis users partly shift to the consumption of 'herbal mixtures' as a legal alternative to cannabis products in order to circumvent drug testing. However, comprehensive methods covering the majority of synthetic cannabinoids already identified on the drug market are still lacking. In this article, we present a fully validated method for the analysis of 30 synthetic cannabinoids in human serum utilizing liquid-liquid extraction and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. The method proved to be suitable for the quantification of 27 substances. The limits of detection ranged from 0.01 to 2.0 ng/mL, whereas the lower limits of quantification were in the range from 0.1 to 2.0 ng/mL. The presented method was successfully applied to 833 authentic serum samples during routine analysis between August 2011 and January 2012. A total of 227 (27%) samples was tested positive for at least one of the following synthetic cannabinoids: JWH-018, JWH-019, JWH-073, JWH-081, JWH-122, JWH-200, JWH-203, JWH-210, JWH-307, AM-2201 and RCS-4. The most prevalent compounds in positive samples were JWH-210 (80%), JWH-122 (63%) as well as AM-2201 (29%). Median serum concentrations were all below 1.0 ng/mL. These findings demonstrate a significant shift of the market of synthetic cannabinoids towards substances featuring a higher CB(1) binding affinity and clearly emphasize that the analysis of synthetic cannabinoids in serum or blood samples requires highly sensitive analytical methods covering a wide spectrum of substances.
分析合成大麻素在人体基质中的含量在法医毒理学和临床毒理学领域非常重要，因为大麻使用者为了逃避药物检测，部分转向使用“草药混合物”作为大麻制品的合法替代品。然而，仍然缺乏涵盖大多数已在毒品市场上鉴定出的合成大麻素的综合方法。在本文中，我们介绍了一种完全验证的方法，用于利用液液萃取和液相色谱-电喷雾串联质谱法分析人血清中的 30 种合成大麻素。该方法适用于 27 种物质的定量分析。检测限范围为 0.01 至 2.0 ng/mL，定量下限范围为 0.1 至 2.0 ng/mL。该方法在 2011 年 8 月至 2012 年 1 月的常规分析中成功应用于 833 份真实血清样本。共有 227 份（27%）样本至少有一种以下合成大麻素呈阳性：JWH-018、JWH-019、JWH-073、JWH-081、JWH-122、JWH-200、JWH-203、JWH-210、JWH-307、AM-2201 和 RCS-4。阳性样本中最常见的化合物是 JWH-210（80%）、JWH-122（63%）和 AM-2201（29%）。血清浓度中位数均低于 1.0 ng/mL。这些发现表明合成大麻素市场明显转向具有更高 CB1 结合亲和力的物质，这清楚地强调了血清或血液样本中合成大麻素的分析需要高度敏感的分析方法，以涵盖广泛的物质。
