Centro Regionale Antidoping 'A. Bertinaria', Regione Gonzole 10, 10043, Orbassano, Turin, Italy.
Drug Test Anal. 2014 Jan-Feb;6(1-2):126-34. doi: 10.1002/dta.1556. Epub 2013 Sep 30.
Among the new psychoactive products, herbal mixtures containing synthetic cannabimimetics are likely the most abused worldwide. In this study, a specific ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method for the detection of 23 synthetic cannabinoids in hair samples was developed in order to (1) expand the number of screened compounds, coherent with new substances emerging in the European territory, (2) evaluate their consumption on a large period of examination, and (3) evaluate the diffusion of cannabimimetics among different populations of drug consumers. The method employs digestion of hair sample with NaOH followed by extraction with n-hexane/ethylacetate, and injection into the UHPLC-MS/MS system. After validation, the method was applied to the analysis of 344 hair samples previously tested in our laboratory for the most common drugs. Overall, 15 samples were found positive for at least one synthetic cannabinoid. Coherent with previously published results, the present data show that young males, former or still active Cannabis consumers, represent the population most often involved in synthetic cannabimimetics consumption. Several cases of poly-abuse were also determined. The drug most frequently detected was JWH-073 (11 samples) generally at low concentration (mean 7.69 ± 14.4 pg/mg, median 1.9 pg/mg, range 1.6-50.5 pg/mg), followed by JWH-122 (8 samples, mean concentration: 544 ± 968 pg/mg, median 28.4 pg/mg, range 7.4-2800 pg/mg). Other detected drugs included JWH-250, JWH-081, JWH-018, JWH-210, JWH-019, and AM-1220. For several positive samples, the synthetic cannabinoid concentration was lower than 50 pg/mg, underlining the need for established cut-off values for discrimination between chronic consumption and occasional use (or external contamination).
在新出现的精神活性物质中，含有合成大麻素的草药混合物可能是全球范围内被滥用最多的物质。在这项研究中，开发了一种特定的超高效液相色谱-串联质谱（UHPLC-MS/MS）方法，用于检测头发样本中的 23 种合成大麻素，目的是：(1) 扩大筛查化合物的数量，与在欧洲出现的新物质保持一致；(2) 在较长的检测期内评估其使用情况；(3) 评估大麻类似物在不同药物使用者群体中的扩散情况。该方法采用氢氧化钠消化头发样本，然后用正己烷/乙酸乙酯萃取，再注入 UHPLC-MS/MS 系统。方法验证后，将其应用于我们实验室之前检测过的 344 个头发样本进行分析，这些样本同时检测了最常见的毒品。总的来说，有 15 个样本至少检测到一种合成大麻素呈阳性。与之前发表的结果一致，目前的数据表明，年轻男性、以前或现在仍在吸食大麻的人是最常涉及使用合成大麻素的人群。还确定了一些多药滥用的案例。最常检测到的药物是 JWH-073（11 个样本），通常浓度较低（平均浓度 7.69 ± 14.4 pg/mg，中位数 1.9 pg/mg，范围 1.6-50.5 pg/mg），其次是 JWH-122（8 个样本，平均浓度：544 ± 968 pg/mg，中位数 28.4 pg/mg，范围 7.4-2800 pg/mg）。其他检测到的药物包括 JWH-250、JWH-081、JWH-018、JWH-210、JWH-019 和 AM-1220。对于几个阳性样本，合成大麻素的浓度低于 50 pg/mg，这表明需要建立区分慢性使用和偶尔使用（或外部污染）的既定截止值。
