Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Grzegórzecka 16 St., Kraków 31-531, Poland.
J Anal Toxicol. 2023 May 19;47(5):470-480. doi: 10.1093/jat/bkad010.
The objective of the present study was to identify the metabolites of synthetic cathinone (SC), 3-chloromethcathinone (3-CMC), and to select a potential intake biomarker for this compound. The basis of the experiment was the analysis of blood and urine samples from a case of fatal poisoning with this substance. We also evaluated the stability of 3-CMC and the selected potential biomarker, the dihydro-3-CMC metabolite, depending on the time elapsed since the autopsy as well as the storage conditions of the biological material. Studies have shown that 3-CMC shows low stability in the biological material. However, acidification of the biological material or storage at low temperatures has a great impact on maintaining its stability. It is crucial to monitor the presence of the dihydro-3-CMC metabolite in the biological material during analysis, which showed high stability under all of the given storage conditions. SCs might not be detected in the biological material and, if they are, the determined concentrations at the time of testing may not correspond to the actual concentrations at the time of the event or death. Consequently, the interpretation of the results obtained for 3-CMC and dihydro-3-CMC in terms of assessing their toxicity and possible cause of death is difficult. The area of research into the search for other intake biomarkers of unstable halogen derivatives of SCs remains open.
本研究的目的是鉴定合成卡西酮（SC）、3-氯甲卡西酮（3-CMC）的代谢物，并为该化合物选择潜在的摄入生物标志物。实验的基础是分析一例因摄入该物质而致命中毒的血液和尿液样本。我们还评估了 3-CMC 和选定的潜在生物标志物、二氢-3-CMC 代谢物的稳定性，取决于自尸检以来经过的时间以及生物材料的储存条件。研究表明，3-CMC 在生物材料中的稳定性较低。然而，生物材料的酸化或低温储存对其稳定性有很大影响。在分析过程中监测生物材料中二氢-3-CMC 代谢物的存在非常重要，因为它在所有给定的储存条件下都表现出很高的稳定性。在生物材料中可能检测不到 SCs，即使检测到，测试时确定的浓度也可能与事件或死亡发生时的实际浓度不对应。因此，在评估 3-CMC 和二氢-3-CMC 的毒性以及可能的死因时，对其结果的解释是困难的。寻找不稳定卤素衍生物的其他摄入生物标志物的研究领域仍然存在。
