Quantification and distribution of 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl (4-FiBF) in postmortem biological samples using UHPLC–QqQ-MS/MS

Zawadzki, Marcin; Wachełko, Olga; Chłopaś-Konowałek, Agnieszka; Szpot, Paweł

doi:10.1007/s11419-021-00584-9

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Within these effects prevail paranoia, hallucinations, agitation, and unconsciousness. Moreover, cardiac effects can be present, such as tachycardia, vasoconstriction and cardiac arrest, muscular effects such as tremors and rhabdomyolysis, or even death, as in the fatal cases mentioned above [24,25,33,34,83]. Comparing the effects on behaviour of α-PiHP and α-PHP administration, it can be deduced that both have very similar locomotor stimulant and discriminative stimulus effects [89,93,94].…”

Section: Adverse Effectsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Like α-PHP, this substance can be found in solid crystal and powder forms. Alpha-PiHP hydrochloride, in its pure form, tends to be odourless and can vary from off-white to white [25,34,[80][81][82][83][84]. This substance has been sold on the streets under its original name and the same name as synthetic cathinones and has already been reported in a branded product called "Insomnia" [25].…”

Section: Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

α-Pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP) and α-Pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone (α-PiHP): A Review

Dinis,

Franco,

Margalho

2024

Life

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

New Psychoactive Substances are currently a serious and growing problem affecting public health worldwide. By 2022, 1184 of these substances had been identified over a period of 16 years. Within these, α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP) and α-pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone (α-PiHP) have emerged, two synthetic cathinones from the pyrovalerone derivates subgroup that are positional isomers of each other. Alpha-PHP appeared on the Japanese illicit drug market in 2014 and, two years later, α-PiHP was identified for the first time in China. They were placed in schedule II on the list of Psychotropic Substances under International Control in 2020 and in March 2023, respectively. Both cathinones have no therapeutic potential for medical use and therefore are abused for recreational habits, which can lead to fatalities. The most frequent adverse effects reported are cardiac, psychiatric, and neurologic, and fatal intoxications have already been described. In Portugal, their consumption and consequent seizures are more prevalent on the archipelagos, which has been aggravating the health situation. In conclusion, these types of substances are a challenge for forensic toxicology since they are easily synthesized, modified, and placed on the market. Therefore, more studies to develop analytical methods to detect them and more comprehensive legislation should be applied. Thus, this review aimed to address the legislative, physicochemical, toxicological, and analytical aspects of both substances.

show abstract

Section: Adverse Effectsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

α-Pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP) and α-Pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone (α-PiHP): A Review

Dinis,

Franco,

Margalho

2024

Life

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Publications describing methods of analysis for individual fentanyl analogs [23][24][25][26] and multiple fentanyl analogs in addition to fentanyl [27][28][29][30][31][32] all use LCMSMS and these studies provide a great starting point for laboratories introducing LCMSMS for the first time and/or developing new methods. In postmortem cases, only tissues are available due to decomposition, and there are several publications exploring the distribution of fentanyl and its analogs in different tissues including the method parameters used [13,[33][34][35][36][37].…”

Section: Analytical Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and rise of fentanyl in postmortem casework

Cooper

2023

Journal of Forensic Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Forensic toxicology laboratories are navigating a period of time with increasing drug overdose deaths, an opioid epidemic, the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic, and the illicit drug market flooded with novel psychoactive substances. In New York City, the Department of Forensic Toxicology has experienced a 56% increase in postmortem casework in the past decade with fentanyl detected in 80% of all overdose deaths. Over a period of 2.5 years, 15,638 postmortem cases were tested for the presence of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs using liquid‐chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LCMSMS). Fentanyl was detected in approximately one third of cases and of these 4447 cases with femoral blood. A twofold increase in cases with high concentrations of fentanyl (>100 ng/mL) was observed between 2021 and 2022. The minor metabolite and precursor chemical, 4‐ANPP (4‐anilino‐N‐phenethylpiperidine) may help differentiate between illicit and licit fentanyl. 4‐ANPP blood concentrations were <10 ng/mL in 98% of the cases and the 4‐ANPP:fentanyl ratio was <0.67 for 99.1% of blood specimens. Only six cases had 4‐ANPP concentrations higher than the corresponding fentanyl blood concentration. This study also highlights, the changing fentanyl analogs found in postmortem cases since 2016 in NYC with the emergence of fluorofentanyl initially identified in 2020 and continuing to dominate in comparison with the prevalence of other analogs, many of which are no longer detected in casework. The detection of one of the latest drugs to be mixed with fentanyl, namely xylazine, has also increased in prevalence by 36.7% in 2022 compared with 2021.

show abstract

“…In Italy, methoxyacetylfentanyl were found in postmortem blood (2.5–91 ng/ml) and urine (70–1900 ng/ml), along with its metabolite methoxyacetylnorfentanyl and other synthetic opioids ( DiTrana et al, 2020 ) ( Table 1 and Supplementary Table S1 ). Other studies also described blood concentrations of fentanyl derivatives, including ocfentanil (15.3 ng/ml; Coopman et al, 2016 ), butyryl fentanyl (99–220 ng/ml; Poklis et al, 2016 ), 4-fluorobutyrylfentanyl (91–112 ng/ml; Rojkiewicz et al, 2016 ) and 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl (76.1–257 ng/ml), in addition to synthetic cathinones (N-ethylpentylone, α-PiHP and 4-CMC; Zawadzki et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Fatal Cases Involving New Psychoactive Substance Intakementioning

confidence: 99%

Fatal cases involving new psychoactive substances and trends in analytical techniques

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

New psychoactive substances (NPS) are an emerging public health issue and deaths are commonly associated with polydrug abuse. Moreover, the number of new substances available is constantly increasing, causing intoxications in low doses, characteristics that impose to toxicology and forensic laboratories to keep routine methods up to date, with high detectability and constantly acquiring new analytical standards. Likewise, NPS metabolites and respective elimination pathways are usually unknown, making it difficult the detection and confirmation of the drug involved in the fatal case in an analytical routine. A literature search was performed on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases for papers related to chromatographic analyses from fatal cases related to NPS use published from 2016 to 2021. A total of 96 papers were retrieved and reviewed in this study. Opioids, synthetic cathinones, phenethylamines/amphetamines and cannabinoids were the NPS classes most found in the fatal cases. In many cases, multiple compounds were detected in the biological samples, including prescription and other illegal drugs. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, an alternative to overcome the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry limitations for some compounds, was the analytical technique most used in the studies, and high resolution mass spectrometry was often applied to NPS metabolite investigation and structural characterization and identification of unknown compounds. Toxicological screening and quantitation methods need to be continuously updated to include new substances that are emerging on the drug market that can be fatal at very low doses.

show abstract

Quantification and distribution of 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl (4-FiBF) in postmortem biological samples using UHPLC–QqQ-MS/MS

Cited by 11 publications

References 23 publications

α-Pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP) and α-Pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone (α-PiHP): A Review

α-Pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP) and α-Pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone (α-PiHP): A Review

The rise and rise of fentanyl in postmortem casework

Fatal cases involving new psychoactive substances and trends in analytical techniques

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About