Detection and quantification of New Psychoactive Substances in solid, urine and serum samples using GC-MS, HPLC-UV and HPLC-ESI-MS/MS

During the last two decades, a change in the consumption of illicit drugs became evident. So called New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) entered the drug market in addition to known drugs, such as cocaine and amphetamine. Intention was to circumvent law and to generate new compounds with similar chemical structures to mimic classic drugs. Since there is neither quality control nor clinical investigation, these completely new compounds represent a hazard. By the end of 2023 the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) monitored more than 1000 different NPS. To get more insight about these compounds, an EU project namely NextGenPS was launched with the goal to choose and investigate eight different substances out of three different compound classes: Two phenylethylamines (25B-NBF and 25I-NBF), three tryptamines (5-MeO-MALT, 5-MeO-pyrT and 5-Cl-DMT) and three cathinones (4F-3Me-α-PVP, α-D2PV and 3F-NBF). These NPS were chosen, since they are expected to enter the global drug market. After synthesis of these compounds by a partner group, characterisation was conducted via high-performance liquid chromatography using UV detection and gas chromatography with mass selective detection. Furthermore, these compounds were analysed in serum and synthetic urine with concentrations between 5 and 100 ng/mL. In this case, a solid-phase extraction method served for sample preparation prior to quantification by liquid chromatography with electron spray ionization tandem MS. Methods were subject to validation and recovery rates were determined.