Development and application of a simplified, quantitative method for 30+ New Psychoactive Substances in hair

Area of Science:

• Forensic Toxicology
• Analytical Chemistry
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) present challenges for forensic toxicology and public health surveillance.
• Hair analysis offers long-term drug exposure assessment, complementing short-term methods like blood and urine testing.
• Detecting diverse NPS at low concentrations in hair remains analytically demanding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a multi-class method for NPS determination in human hair.
• To enable robust, long-term biomonitoring of NPS exposure.
• To support forensic investigations and public health initiatives related to NPS.

Main Methods:

• A three-step wash followed by simultaneous pulverization and methanolic extraction of hair samples.
• Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for identification and quantification.
• Validation according to ANSI/ASB Standard 036, assessing linearity, precision, bias, and matrix effects.

Main Results:

• Successful multi-class detection of 12 synthetic opioids, 8 synthetic cathinones, 3 dissociatives, 3 designer benzodiazepines, 3 hallucinogens, and 2 synthetic cannabinoids.
• Method linearity from 5-500 pg/mg, with intra- and inter-day precision <20% and bias within ±20%.
• Consistent matrix effects allowing reliable quantitation; application to authentic samples confirmed the presence of emerging NPS.

Conclusions:

• The integrated pulverization-extraction approach provides rapid and robust multi-class NPS detection in hair.
• This method is suitable for biomonitoring and forensic applications, addressing the challenge of NPS diversity.
• The validated method enhances capabilities for tracking temporal trends and retrospective exposure assessment of NPS.