Sewage‐based epidemiology in monitoring the use of new psychoactive substances: Validation and application of an analytical method using LC‐MS/MS

Abstract

Sewage-based epidemiology (SBE) employs the analysis of sewage to detect and quantify drug use within a community. While SBE has been applied repeatedly for the estimation of classical illicit drugs, only few studies investigated new psychoactive substances (NPS). These compounds mimic effects of illicit drugs by introducing slight modifications to chemical structures of controlled illicit drugs. We describe the optimization, validation, and application of an analytical method using liquid chromatography coupled to positive electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) for the determination of seven NPS in sewage: methoxetamine (MXE), butylone, ethylone, methylone, methiopropamine (MPA), 4-methoxymethamphetamine (PMMA), and 4-methoxyamphetamine (PMA). Sample preparation was performed using solid-phase extraction (SPE) with Oasis MCX cartridges. The LC separation was done with a HILIC (150 x 3 mm, 5 µm) column which ensured good resolution of the analytes with a total run time of 19 min. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was between 0.5 and 5 ng/L for all compounds. The method was validated by evaluating the following parameters: sensitivity, selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recoveries and matrix effects. The method was applied on sewage samples collected from sewage treatment plants in Belgium and Switzerland in which all investigated compounds were detected, except MPA and PMA. Furthermore, a consistent presence of MXE has been observed in most of the sewage samples at levels higher than LLOQ.

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology of Cocaine in the Brazilian Federal District: Spatial Distribution, Weekly Variation and Sample Preservation Strategies

“…1,2 Concentration of the drug residues can be assessed through analytical routines that include sample collection and preservation, followed by specific analytes separation and quantification. Benzoylecgonine (BE) and cocaine (COC) have been the most frequently investigated substances within wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) initiatives around the world, [3][4][5][6][7] since the former is the most abundant cocaine metabolite. Also for this reason, analytical data concerning benzoylecgonine in wastewater samples has been used as a near real-time tool to estimate cocaine consumption for a given population.…”

Novel Psychoactive Substances: Systematic Review and Evidence-Based Analysis of Literature

“…11;2017 The outlet (Journal of publications) for NPS research were highly numerous and diverse ( Figure 11). (Ayres, 2012;Gibbons, 2012;Kinyua, 2015). To re-encapsulate, it is ostensible that NPS researchers are densely populated in the developed parts of the world, namely western Europe and the UK, North America, and Australasia.…”

A data-independent acquisition workflow for qualitative screening of new psychoactive substances in biological samples

“…In such cases, and considering that not much experimental data exist on the biotransformation of NPS, this workflow would be useful since it includes screening for not only the parent compounds but also potential biomarkers like predicted metabolites. Furthermore, other fields might benefit from having biomarker information-such as sewage-based epidemiology [41][42][43][44].…”