Forensic Medicine Laboratory, Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Macerata, 62100 Macerata, Italy.
Molecules. 2023 Jun 8;28(12):4649. doi: 10.3390/molecules28124649.
Insects on corpses could be a useful tool for the detection of exogenous substances such as drugs of abuse. The identification of exogenous substances in carrion insects is critical for proper estimation of the postmortem interval. It also provides information about the deceased person that may prove useful for forensic purposes. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with Fourier transform mass spectrometry is a highly sensitive analytical technique that can identify substances even at very low concentrations, such as in the case of searching for exogenous substances in larvae. In this paper, a method is proposed for the identification of morphine, codeine, methadone, 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) and 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) in the larvae of , a common carrion fly widely distributed in temperate areas of the world. The larvae, which were reared on a pig meat substrate, were killed once they reached their third stage by immersion in hot water at 80 °C and aliquoted into 400 mg samples. The samples were fortified with 5 ng of morphine, methadone and codeine. After solid-phase extraction, the samples were processed with a liquid chromatograph coupled to a Fourier transform mass spectrometer. This qualitative method has been validated and tested on larvae from a real case. The results lead to the correct identification of morphine, codeine, methadone and their metabolites. This method could prove useful in cases where toxicological analysis must be conducted on highly decomposed human remains, where biological matrices are very limited. Furthermore, it could help the forensic pathologist to better estimate the time of death, as the growth cycle of carrion insects can undergo changes if exogenous substances are taken.
昆虫尸体可能是检测外源性物质（如滥用药物）的有用工具。鉴定腐尸昆虫中的外源性物质对于正确估计死后时间至关重要。它还提供了有关死者的信息，这些信息可能对法医学目的有用。高效液相色谱法与傅里叶变换质谱联用是一种高度敏感的分析技术，即使在非常低的浓度下（如在幼虫中寻找外源性物质的情况下）也能识别物质。在本文中，提出了一种在广泛分布于世界温带地区的常见腐尸蝇幼虫中鉴定吗啡、可待因、美沙酮、6-单乙酰吗啡（6-MAM）和 2-亚乙基-1,5-二甲基-3,3-二苯基吡咯烷（EDDP）的方法。幼虫在猪肉基质上饲养，一旦达到第三阶段，就会通过浸入 80°C 的热水中而死亡，并将其分成 400mg 的样品。样品中加入了 5ng 的吗啡、美沙酮和可待因。经过固相萃取后，用液相色谱仪与傅里叶变换质谱仪对样品进行处理。该定性方法已在实际案例中的幼虫上进行了验证和测试。结果正确鉴定了吗啡、可待因、美沙酮及其代谢物。这种方法对于必须对高度分解的人类遗骸进行毒理学分析的情况可能非常有用，因为生物基质非常有限。此外，它可以帮助法医病理学家更好地估计死亡时间，因为如果摄入外源性物质，腐尸昆虫的生长周期可能会发生变化。
