Detection of synthetic cathinones in victims of sexual assault

Hagan, Kiara S.; Reidy, Lisa

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.07.040

Cited by 46 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…The data involving other NPS in DFSA are also scarce. Kiara et al.. has reported 6 methylone‐positive cases in urine . In regular consumers, cathinone concentrations found in hair were usually high.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their use as psychostimulants and entactogens has widely been reported in sexual contexts, especially in men who have sex with men (MSM) in order to increase sexual performance and libido . However, these drugs have rarely been encountered in drug facilitated crime (DFC) including DFSA . This could be related to the fact that these substances do not induce anterograde memory loss, a desired symptom for a sexual assault.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5,6 However, these drugs have rarely been encountered in drug facilitated crime (DFC) including DFSA. 7,8 This could be related to the fact that these substances do not induce anterograde memory loss, a desired symptom for a sexual assault. Here we present a case in which hair was used to highlight a DFSA involving 4-MEC and MDPV associated with doxylamine.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Drug‐facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involving 4‐methylethcathinone (4‐MEC), 3,4‐Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and doxylamine highlighted by hair analysis

Larabi

Martin

Etting

et al. 2018

Drug Testing and Analysis

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Recently, the emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) has led to their wide use among clubbers and men who have sex with men (MSM) for their stimulant effects. However, their use in drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) has rarely been described. Herein we report a case of a 44-year-old man who was assaulted after a party. Due to late reporting of the offense, only hair (black) was sampled 15 days later and a segmental analysis was achieved to look for most DFSA agents and NPS. Twenty mg of each segment (A: 0-1 cm, B: 1-3 cm, and C: 3-5 cm) were incubated in phosphate buffer pH 5.0. After alkaline liquid extraction and chromatographic separation on 1.9 μm Hypersil GOLD PFP column, compounds were detected by a TSQ Vantage mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization in positive mode with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) acquisition. 4-methylethcathinone (4-MEC), methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and doxylamine were found in proximal segment at very low concentrations (3, 5, and 9 pg/mg, respectively) which is in agreement with a single exposure in the previous month corresponding to the alleged facts. These substances were not detected in segments B and C showing a lack of repetitive exposure before the alleged event. Thus, the results do not contradict the patient's claim of being assaulted. Doxylamine has already been encountered in such cases but no publications referring to 4-MEC or MDPV use have ever been documented. Our case reports the unusual administration of cathinones to achieve a sexual assault and stresses the interest of looking for designer drugs when dealing with DFSA cases.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drug‐facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involving 4‐methylethcathinone (4‐MEC), 3,4‐Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and doxylamine highlighted by hair analysis

Larabi

Martin

Etting

et al. 2018

Drug Testing and Analysis

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“…Described sample pre‐treatments for urine consist of conventional liquid–liquid extraction (LLE), dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) and SPE, with and without enzymatic hydrolysis (use of β‐glucuronidase) for total cathinones and free cathinones, respectively; although direct determination after protein precipitation and QuEChERS have also been proposed . Recent proposals also perform direct determination (chromatographic injection) after protein separation by centrifugation, enzymatic hydrolysis and centrifugation, conventional (available commercial cartridges) SPE, and LLE . Finally, solid‐phase microextraction (SPME), and volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) have been also used for cathinones assessment in urine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…24 Recent proposals also perform direct determination (chromatographic injection) after protein separation by centrifugation, 26-28 enzymatic hydrolysis and centrifugation, 29,30 conventional (available commercial cartridges) SPE, [31][32][33][34][35] and LLE. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42] Finally, solid-phase microextraction (SPME), 43 and volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) 44 have been also used for cathinones assessment in urine. Some of these developments deal with the assessment of a specific synthetic cathinone, such as 3,4-dimethylmethcathinone (3,4-DMMC), 29 4′-methyl-α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (MPHP), 27 3,4methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), 41 mephedrone, 42 and metabolic profiles regarding pyrrolidinohexiophenone (α-PHP), 39 1-phenyl-2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-heptanone (PV8), 34 and 1-phenyl-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (α-PVP).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

HPLC‐MS/MS combined with membrane‐protected molecularly imprinted polymer micro‐solid‐phase extraction for synthetic cathinones monitoring in urine

Sánchez–González

Odoardi

Bermejo

et al. 2018

Drug Testing and Analysis

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Synthetic cathinones are a type of drug belonging to group of new psychoactive substances (NPSs). The illicit market for these substances is characterized by the continuous introduction to the market of new analogs to evade legislation and to avoid detection. New screening and confirmation assays are therefore needed, mainly in forensic/clinical samples. In the current development, a porous membrane-protected, micro-solid-phase extraction (μ-SPE) has been developed for the assessment of several cathinones in urine. The μ-SPE device consisted of a cone-shaped polypropylene (PP) porous membrane containing the adsorbent (molecularly imprinted polymers, MIPs, synthesized for the first time for this class of drugs). MIPs were prepared using ethylone and 3-methylmethcathinone (3-MMC) as templates, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a functional monomer, divinylbenzene (DVB) as a cross-linker, and 2,2´-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator. The prepared ethylone-based MIP and 3-MMC-based MIP have been fully characterized and evaluated as new selective adsorbents for μ-SPE. Cathinones separation/determination was performed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Optimum loading conditions (pH 5.0, loading for 4.0 minutes under orbital-horizontal shaking at 200 rpm) and elution conditions [2.0 mL of 75:20:5 heptane/2-propanol/ammonium hydroxide and ultrasounds assistance (37 kHz, 325 W) for 4.0 minutes] were found for ethylone-based MIP. Validation (intra-day and inter-day precision and analytical recovery) showed RSD values lower than 9 and 10% for intra-day and inter-day precision, and within the 88%-101% range for intra-day and inter-day analytical recovery.

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Enantioselective determination of cathinones in urine by high pressure in‐line SPE–CE

et al. 2019

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This work presents a strategy based on the in‐line coupling of SPE and CE for the chiral determination of cathinones (R,S‐mephedrone, R,S‐4‐methylephedrine, and R,S‐ methylenedioxypyrovalerone) in urine samples, using a sample pretreatment based on liquid‐liquid extraction. The chiral separation of the compounds is achieved by adding a mixture of 8 mM 2‐hydroxypropil β‐CD and 5 mM β‐CD to the BGE, which consists of 70 mM of monosodium phosphate aqueous solution at pH 2.5. Oasis HLB was the selected sorbent for the in‐line SPE device, and to reduce analysis time and LODs, several parameters affecting the in‐line SPE system were evaluated, such as pressure and time of sample injection and dimensions of the SPE device. The highest preconcentration factors were achieved by using 3 bar of injection pressure for 20 min with an in‐line SPE device of 2 mm length and 150 µm of i.d. The developed method was applied to determine the presence of the compounds in spiked urine samples. The LODs obtained were between 3 and 8 ng/mL, and these levels were below the usual concentrations at which these drugs are present in urine from cathinone abusers. Thus, the optimized method has the potential to be applied for toxicological and forensic purposes.

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Detection of synthetic cathinones in victims of sexual assault

Cited by 46 publications

References 10 publications

Drug‐facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involving 4‐methylethcathinone (4‐MEC), 3,4‐Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and doxylamine highlighted by hair analysis

Drug‐facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) involving 4‐methylethcathinone (4‐MEC), 3,4‐Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), and doxylamine highlighted by hair analysis

HPLC‐MS/MS combined with membrane‐protected molecularly imprinted polymer micro‐solid‐phase extraction for synthetic cathinones monitoring in urine

Enantioselective determination of cathinones in urine by high pressure in‐line SPE–CE

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