Activity-Based Detection of Cannabinoids in Serum and Plasma Samples

Area of Science:

• Forensic Toxicology
• Pharmacology
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Synthetic cannabinoids are a growing class of novel psychoactive substances.
• Their rapid proliferation challenges traditional detection methods.
• There is a need for effective untargeted screening strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel, stable bioassays for detecting (synthetic) cannabinoid receptor activity.
• To enable untargeted screening of serum and plasma samples.
• To improve upon existing bioassay sensitivity and specificity.

Main Methods:

• Developed bioluminescent bioassays utilizing split luciferase complementation.
• Used truncated β-arrestin 2 (βarr2) recruitment to cannabinoid receptors.
• Extracted cannabinoids from serum and plasma samples using liquid-liquid extraction.

Main Results:

• The new bioassays demonstrated improved analytical sensitivity compared to previous methods.
• Detected cannabinoid receptor activation in serum/plasma extracts at low ng/mL concentrations.
• Achieved 82% analytical sensitivity and 100% analytical specificity for synthetic cannabinoids.

Conclusions:

• The developed bioassays can serve as a first-line screening tool for (synthetic) cannabinoid activity.
• These assays can complement conventional analytical methods like mass spectrometry.
• Potential for early detection and confirmation of cannabinoid use.