Muscular dystrophy in adult mice chronically treated with delta9-THC at behavioural doses.
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Animals↗
Biomedical subjects
M Chiarotti
Publications and source records attributed to M Chiarotti.
Muscular dystrophy in mice after chronic subcutaneous treatment with cannabinoids.
Swiss male albino mice were treated subcutaneously with the main cannabinoids (CBN, CBD, delta9-THC) at the dosage of 1 mg/kg per day for 30 days, and with the crude resin. At the end of the treatment, after supramaximal stimulation of the sciatic nerve, a significant decrease of both maximal twitch and tetanus tensions was observed in delta9-THC-treated animals; CBD and resin treatment produced some decrease in active tension, while CBN treatment induced an enhancement of the contractile strength. Histology showed lesions interpretable as due to muscular dystrophy. Analysis of protein and hydroxyproline muscular content showed a marked reduction in protein in all treated animals, with a corresponding high increase in hydroxyproline content.
Animals↗
Capillary gas chromatographic analysis of illicit diamorphine preparations.
An improved capillary gas chromatographic method for the analysis of illicit diamorphine preparation is reported. The method was able to resolve the impurities and more frequent adulterants and contaminants present in street heroin preparations with a diamorphine detection limit of 0.2 ng in split-less mode.
Chromatography, Gas↗
Methadone extraction from minimal amounts of biological fluids.
A new solid phase extraction method was studied to extract methadone from small amounts of biological samples, by using little disposable columns prepacked with reverse phase sorbents. Two different commercial kinds of reversed phase columns prepacked with octadecylsilane (ODS) were tested; the results were compared to those obtained by a direct liquid/liquid extraction method. Gas chromatograms of extracts obtained by means of ODS reversed phase columns showed a good signal/noise ratio resulting in higher sensitivity (20 ng/ml as detection limit), in comparison with the liquid/liquid extraction method.
Chromatography, Gas↗
Drugs in hair: a new extraction procedure.
An enzymatic hydrolysis of hair for drug detection is described. The results obtained with the suggested method are compared with those observed by chemical hydrolysis. Enzymatic digestion provides a high recovery (80%) for cocaine metabolite, while alkaline hydrolysis causes its chemical destruction. The two hydrolytic procedures yielded comparable results for morphine. The outlined procedure is recommended when unstable compounds are to be detected in hair.
Cocaine↗
Comparative analysis of illicit heroin samples.
The comparative analysis of street heroin samples is still an object of scientific discussion. A combination of a wide range of analytical techniques is necessary to obtain a valid amount of information about the sample composition, and it is impossible to define an unique analytical approach. We suggest a complete analytical sequence based on analysis of volatile compounds, opiates, diluents, adulterants and metals, by head space gas chromatography (HS/GC), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS), thin layer chromatography (TLC), high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and atomic absorption (AA) using a sample amount as low as 50-100 mg. The outlined procedure can be successfully applied to routine work, thus obtaining suitable information about a sample's chemical composition. This helps to attribute or exclude common sources of separate specimens. Results obtained on 33 street heroin samples confiscated in the metropolitan area of Rome are listed.
Chromatography, Gas↗
Morphine determination by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy in human vitreous humor and comparison with radioimmunoassay.
A gas chromatographic-mass spectroscopic method (GC/MS) for morphine determination in human vitreous humor was developed. Reversed-phase solid-liquid extraction gave better sample purification compared with liquid-liquid or normal-phase solid-liquid extractions. In 10 real cases of death by heroin overdose, the correlation between the results obtained by GC/MS and by radioimmunoassay (RIA) was studied.
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry↗
Evaluation of cocaine use during pregnancy through toxicological analysis of hair.
Toxicological analysis of hair was used to detect cocaine use in a group of 615 pregnant women. Hair samples were washed, enzymatically digested, and analyzed by radioimmunoassay for cocaine. Positive results were confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after a solid-phase extraction. Benzoylecgonine (BZE) and cocaine were detected after derivatization with pentafluoropropionic-anhydride-pentafluoropropanol. Deuterated cocaine and BZE were used as internal standards. This study demonstrated a mean frequency of 1.9% cases positive for cocaine in all the hair samples examined. The positive rate was 6% among women admitted for spontaneous abortion (66 cases), and the positive rate was 1.4% for those who carried to full term (549 cases). These data underline the usefulness of hair analysis for the diagnosis of drug abuse and demonstrate that there is significant use of cocaine in the Italian population.
Abortion, Spontaneous↗
Application of hair analysis to document coercive heroin administration to a child.
This paper describes the application of hair analysis in a judicial case to document coercive heroin administration to a 5-year-old child, who was admitted with overdose symptoms to an intensive care division. Segmental hair analysis was performed in order to determine if drug consumption had continued. Quantitative results showed the presence of morphine and O-6-monoacetylmorphine (MAM) in increasing amounts from the second to the distal segment of hair, each approximately corresponding to a period of time of one month. MAM concentrations ranged from 0.2 ng/mg in the second segment of hair to 0.6 ng/mg in the distal segment; morphine concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 ng/mg. Limits of detection were 0.1 ng/mg for morphine and 0.2 ng/mg for MAM. The proximal segment of hair, which corresponded to the period that the child was housed in a social center, was negative for opiates.
Child, Preschool↗
Solid-phase microextraction for cannabinoids analysis in hair and its possible application to other drugs.
This paper describes the application of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) to cannabis testing in hair. Fifty milligrams of hair was washed with petroleum ether, hydrolyzed with NaOH, neutralized, deuterated internal standard was added and directly submitted to SPME. The SPME was analyzed by GC-MS. The limit of detection was 0.1 ng/mg for cannabinol (CBN) and delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 0.2 ng/mg for cannabidiol (CBD). THC was detected in a range spanning from 0.1 to 0.7 ng/mg. CBD concentrations ranged from 0.7 to 14.1 ng/mg, and CBN concentrations ranged from 0.4 to 0.7 ng/mg. The effectiveness of different decontamination procedures was also studied on passively contaminated hair. The proposed method is also suitable for the analysis of methadone in hair; cocaine and cocaethylene can be detected in hair with SPME extraction after enzymatic hydrolysis.
Cannabinoids↗