Emerging Trends in Pharmacotoxicological and Forensic Sample Treatment Procedures

Abstract

One of the most discussed topics concerns the sample preparation before the analysis and, therefore, all the operations necessary to eliminate the interferents, clean up the specimens, and extract the analytes of interest, reducing the matrix effect. This review highlights the fundamental steps in the treatment of postmortem samples used in forensic analysis. Through critical literature research, it was possible to choose among the countless works that could provide a general overview of the state-of-the-art in this field. Different biological matrices have been considered; blood and urine (the traditional biological fluids) are used to investigate the presence of substances that may have caused death, whilst other body fluids, such as bile and oral fluids, are still under discussion for their usability (and suitability). In the second part of the review, all the solid matrices obtained after autopsy were further divided into conventional and unconventional matrices to facilitate proper understanding. The choice of literature was also made according to the most widely used pretreatment techniques and the most representative innovative techniques.

Simultaneous multi-targeted forensic toxicological screening in biological matrices by MRM-IDA-EPI mode

“…Beyond traditional matrices, also unconventional matrices, whose employment has been incremented in peculiar cases, were tested. This could be another advantage in comparison to immunoassays, which are usually validated on traditional matrices (Greco et al 2023;Molina and Dimaio 2005;Rasanen et al 2000).…”

“…Noteworthy, given the presence of specialised personnel on site, urine, as well as blood samples, can be collected at the emergency room in the event of intoxication being ascertained by the doctor (Lee et al 2021). As deeply described in scientific literature, investigations in blood represent a photograph of the present moment, when venipuncture occurs, whereas urine is indicative of past drug exposure (Corlade-Andrei et al 2023;Gallardo and Queiroz 2008;Greco et al 2023).…”

“…However, these matrices are not always available at autopsy as in the case of high decomposition and fire (Bierly and Labay 2018;de Campos et al 2022;Gallardo and Queiroz 2008). For this reason, it is important for forensic investigations to use alternative matrices, such as vitreous humor, synovial fluid, cadaveric tissue and cadaveric larvae (Deking et al 2014;Greco et al 2023;Groth et al 2022;Kintz et al 1990;Savini et al 2020). Indeed, as necrophagous insects, attracted by the odour produced during decomposition, enter the soft parts of the body and feed on the decomposed tissues containing xenobiotics, they could be indicative of human exposure to drugs of abuse (Groth et al 2022;Joseph et al 2011).…”

Portable NIR spectroscopy: the route to green analytical chemistry

“…Caillet et al tested six devices’ utility and usability in detecting substandard and falsified medicines: four handheld spectrometers (two near infrared and two Raman), one portable MIR spectrometer and a single-use paper analytical device ( Caillet et al, 2021 ; Greco et al, 2023a ; Greco et al, 2023b ). Laboratory evaluation of twelve portable devices for medicine quality screening was proposed by Zambrzycki and coworkers, including portable instruments ( Zambrzycki et al, 2021 ).…”

Applicability of a Chemiluminescence Immunoassay to Screen Postmortem Bile Specimens and Its Agreement with Confirmation Analysis

“…Blood and urine are the traditional biological fluids handled by forensic toxicologists to determine drug presence at the time of the death or within a period before death, when drugs have already been metabolized, respectively [8,9]. Sometimes, mainly in case of severe decomposition, it is not possible to use these matrices because they are not available for removal, collection and analysis [8].…”