Activity-based detection of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists in plant materials.

Adulterated cannabis CB1 cannabinoid receptor bioassay Harm reduction New psychoactive substances (NPS) Synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) Untargeted screening

Journal

Harm reduction journal
ISSN: 1477-7517
Titre abrégé: Harm Reduct J
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101153624

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
01 Jul 2024
Historique:
received: 23 01 2024
accepted: 18 06 2024
medline: 2 7 2024
pubmed: 2 7 2024
entrez: 2 7 2024
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Since late 2019, fortification of 'regular' cannabis plant material with synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) has become a notable phenomenon on the drug market. As many SCRAs pose a higher health risk than genuine cannabis, recognizing SCRA-adulterated cannabis is important from a harm reduction perspective. However, this is not always an easy task as adulterated cannabis may only be distinguished from genuine cannabis by dedicated, often expensive and time-consuming analytical techniques. In addition, the dynamic nature of the SCRA market renders identification of fortified samples a challenging task. Therefore, we established and applied an in vitro cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB The assay principle relies on the functional complementation of a split-nanoluciferase following recruitment of β-arrestin 2 to activated CB The bioassay successfully detected all samples of a set (n = 24) of analytically confirmed authentic Spice products, additionally providing relevant information on the 'strength' of a preparation and whether different samples may have originated from separate batches or possibly the same production batch. Finally, the methodology was applied to assess the occurrence of SCRA adulteration in a large set (n = 252) of herbal materials collected at an international dance festival. This did not reveal any positives, i.e. there were no samples that yielded a relevant CB In summary, we established SCRA screening of herbal materials as a new application for the activity-based CB

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Since late 2019, fortification of 'regular' cannabis plant material with synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) has become a notable phenomenon on the drug market. As many SCRAs pose a higher health risk than genuine cannabis, recognizing SCRA-adulterated cannabis is important from a harm reduction perspective. However, this is not always an easy task as adulterated cannabis may only be distinguished from genuine cannabis by dedicated, often expensive and time-consuming analytical techniques. In addition, the dynamic nature of the SCRA market renders identification of fortified samples a challenging task. Therefore, we established and applied an in vitro cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB
METHODS METHODS
The assay principle relies on the functional complementation of a split-nanoluciferase following recruitment of β-arrestin 2 to activated CB
RESULTS RESULTS
The bioassay successfully detected all samples of a set (n = 24) of analytically confirmed authentic Spice products, additionally providing relevant information on the 'strength' of a preparation and whether different samples may have originated from separate batches or possibly the same production batch. Finally, the methodology was applied to assess the occurrence of SCRA adulteration in a large set (n = 252) of herbal materials collected at an international dance festival. This did not reveal any positives, i.e. there were no samples that yielded a relevant CB
CONCLUSION CONCLUSIONS
In summary, we established SCRA screening of herbal materials as a new application for the activity-based CB

Identifiants

pubmed: 38951904
doi: 10.1186/s12954-024-01044-4
pii: 10.1186/s12954-024-01044-4
doi:

Substances chimiques

Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists 0
Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB1 0
Cannabinoids 0

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

127

Subventions

Organisme : The Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds (BOF) of Ghent University
ID : BOF21/DOC/248

Informations de copyright

© 2024. The Author(s).

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Auteurs

Axelle Timmerman (A)

Laboratory of Toxicology, Department of Bioanalysis, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Margot Balcaen (M)

Belgian Early Warning System on Drugs, Unit Illicit drugs, Health information, Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.

Vera Coopman (V)

Eurofins Forensics Belgium, Bruges, Belgium.

Maarten Degreef (M)

Belgian Early Warning System on Drugs, Unit Illicit drugs, Health information, Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.

Eline Pottie (E)

Laboratory of Toxicology, Department of Bioanalysis, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Christophe P Stove (CP)

Laboratory of Toxicology, Department of Bioanalysis, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. christophe.stove@ugent.be.

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