U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Comprehensive Forensic Toxicological Analysis of Designer Drugs

NCJ Number
244233
Date Published
October 2013
Length
53 pages
Annotation

In order to determine how designer drugs may or may not react in presumptive screens with pre-existing commercial immunoassays, this project determined the cross-reactivity of 30 designer drugs with 16 ELIISA reagents from four different companies; and two EMIT reagents were evaluated in order to determine the cross-reactivity of these same compounds in urine.

Abstract

Cross-reactivity toward most of the tested drugs was greater than 4 percent in assays that targeted amphetamine or methamphetamine. Compounds such as MDA, MDMA, ethylamphetamine, and alpha-methyltryptamine demonstrated cross-reactivities in the range of 30-250 percent, but data were consistent with both manufacturers' inserts and published literature. Some assays - such as BZP, cotinine, PCP, mephentermine, methylphenidate, ketamine, and MDPV - demonstrated almost no cross-reactivity toward any of the analytes evaluated. When tested against the Randox Mephedrone/Methcathinone kit, cathinone derivatives showed cross-reactivity at concentrations as low as 150 ng/ml. The Mephedrone/Methcathinone kit was not a suitable assay for detecting other more traditional amphetamine-derived compounds, but may be more appropriate for screening post-mortem specimens for "bath salts" when putrefactive amines may be present. All other assays demonstrated essentially no cross-reactivity toward any of the analytes assessed. Given these results, there is clearly a need for additional broad-range screening techniques that can be applied when analyzing biological specimens for drugs of abuse, specifically the more recent designer drugs. 16 tables, 4 figures, a 42-item bibliography, and information on research dissemination

Date Published: October 1, 2013