Cannabinoids in oral fluid by on-site immunoassay and by GC-MS using two different oral fluid collection devices

Abstract

Oral fluid (OF) offers non-invasive sample collection for on-site drug testing, but performance of on-site tests with occasional and frequent smokers’ OF to identify cannabinoid intake requires further evaluation. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no studies evaluate differences in cannabinoid disposition among OF collection devices with authentic OF samples after controlled cannabis administration. 14 frequent (≥4x/week) and 10 occasional (<2x/week) adult cannabis smokers smoked one 6.8% Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cigarette ad libitum over 10 min. OF was collected with the StatSure Saliva Sampler™, Oral-Eze®, and Draeger DrugTest® 5000 test cassette before and up to 30h after cannabis smoking. Test cassettes were analyzed within 15 min and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry cannabinoid results obtained within 24h. Cannabinoid concentrations with the StatSure and Oral-Eze devices were compared and last cannabinoid detection times (tlast) and DrugTest 5000 test performance were assessed at different cannabinoid cutoffs. 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC (THCCOOH) and cannabinol concentrations were significantly higher in Oral-Eze than Stat-Sure samples. DrugTest 5000 tlast for a positive cannabinoid test were median (range) 12h (4-24h) and 21h (1-≥30h) for occasional and frequent smokers, respectively. Detection windows in screening and confirmatory tests were generally shorter in occasional than frequent smokers, especially when including THCCOOH ≥20ng/L in confirmation criteria. No differences in tlast were observed between collection devices, except for THC ≥2μg/L. We report significant differences in THCCOOH and cannabinol, but not THC, concentrations between OF collection devices, which may influence OF data interpretation. The DrugTest 5000 on-site device had high diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and efficiency for cannabinoids.

Quantification of cannabinoids and their free and glucuronide metabolites in whole blood by disposable pipette extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

“…The certificate of analysis for THCV indicates its purity is 94.8±0.12%, indicating that CBD and CBG may be present within the standard. These data agree with results obtained during method development conducted by our laboratory for cannabinoids quantification in oral fluid, in which the same THCV standard was utilized; CBD and CBG were detected in samples fortified with THCV alone at 1.5 and 1.3% of THCV concentration, respectively [26]. Additionally, THCCOOH was detected in a sample fortified with THCCOOH-glucuronide at 0.5% of fortified THCCOOH-glucuronide concentration.…”

Detection of Δ9 THC in oral fluid following vaporized cannabis with varied cannabidiol (CBD) content: An evaluation of two point‐of‐collection testing devices

“…15 For the DT5000 (5-25 ng/mL THC cut-off), performance, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were variously reported as 49.5%-100%, 55%-90%, and 55%-86.4%. 5,9,14,[16][17][18][19][20] The high variability in these results reflects differences in the cut-offs and biological matrices used for confirmatory analyses, the timing of tests relative to cannabis administration, cannabis dosage, and route of administration.…”

Determination of the relative percentage distribution of THCA and Δ9-THC in herbal cannabis seized in Austria – Impact of different storage temperatures on stability

“…In literature, several articles dealing with the analyses and determination of cannabinoids in plant material [4][5][6], urine [7,8], blood [8,9], oral fluid [8,10,11] as well as hair [12] using various chromatographic methods are available [13].…”

“…However, gas chromatography is one of the most common used techniques for analysis of cannabinoids [11,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”