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Detectability of designer benzodiazepines in CEDIA, EMIT II Plus, HEIA, and KIMS II immunochemical screening assays

Pettersson Bergstrand, Madeleine ; Helander, Anders ; Hansson, Therese LU and Beck, Olof (2017) In Drug Testing and Analysis 9(4). p.640-645
Abstract

The emerging new psychoactive substances made available for recreational drug use have recently started to include designer benzodiazepines. As a consequence, the routine immunoassay drug testing for benzodiazepines may become less effective, due to an increased occurrence of 'false negative' and 'false positive' results. This work aimed to extend the knowledge of analytical cross-reactivity of 13 designer benzodiazepines in the CEDIA, EMIT II Plus, HEIA, and KIMS II immunoassays. Urine standards were prepared by spiking blank urine with clonazolam, deschloroetizolam, diclazepam, estazolam, etizolam, flubromazepam, flubromazolam, flutazolam, 3-hydroxyphenazepam, meclonazepam, nifoxipam, phenazepam, and pyrazolam. Authentic urine samples... (More)

The emerging new psychoactive substances made available for recreational drug use have recently started to include designer benzodiazepines. As a consequence, the routine immunoassay drug testing for benzodiazepines may become less effective, due to an increased occurrence of 'false negative' and 'false positive' results. This work aimed to extend the knowledge of analytical cross-reactivity of 13 designer benzodiazepines in the CEDIA, EMIT II Plus, HEIA, and KIMS II immunoassays. Urine standards were prepared by spiking blank urine with clonazolam, deschloroetizolam, diclazepam, estazolam, etizolam, flubromazepam, flubromazolam, flutazolam, 3-hydroxyphenazepam, meclonazepam, nifoxipam, phenazepam, and pyrazolam. Authentic urine samples from intoxication cases identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were also investigated. For the spiked standard samples, the 13 designer benzodiazepines generally showed a high cross-reactivity in all assays. This was further confirmed when investigating their detectability in authentic urine samples from cases of drug intake. The test responses also indicated additional reactivity from metabolites. The lowest detectability in spiked samples was observed for flutazolam, which shows the most divergent chemical structure compared with the other benzodiazepines. Overall, the KIMS II and CEDIA immunoassays, which both include enzymatic hydrolysis of conjugated forms, showed the highest, and EMIT II Plus the lowest degree of reactivity, for spiked parent substances and authentic urine specimens. The results of this study demonstrated that designer benzodiazepines can be detected in standard urine immunoassay drug screening and this should be taken into consideration when performing confirmation analysis.

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author
; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Designer benzodiazepines, Drug testing, Immunoassay, New psychoactive substances, Urine
in
Drug Testing and Analysis
volume
9
issue
4
pages
640 - 645
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • pmid:27366870
  • scopus:84993660544
ISSN
1942-7603
DOI
10.1002/dta.2003
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
6c61054d-48b2-4d85-b2a8-79d4ac687bde
date added to LUP
2017-02-21 12:12:15
date last changed
2024-08-04 16:07:39
@article{6c61054d-48b2-4d85-b2a8-79d4ac687bde,
  abstract     = {{<p>The emerging new psychoactive substances made available for recreational drug use have recently started to include designer benzodiazepines. As a consequence, the routine immunoassay drug testing for benzodiazepines may become less effective, due to an increased occurrence of 'false negative' and 'false positive' results. This work aimed to extend the knowledge of analytical cross-reactivity of 13 designer benzodiazepines in the CEDIA, EMIT II Plus, HEIA, and KIMS II immunoassays. Urine standards were prepared by spiking blank urine with clonazolam, deschloroetizolam, diclazepam, estazolam, etizolam, flubromazepam, flubromazolam, flutazolam, 3-hydroxyphenazepam, meclonazepam, nifoxipam, phenazepam, and pyrazolam. Authentic urine samples from intoxication cases identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were also investigated. For the spiked standard samples, the 13 designer benzodiazepines generally showed a high cross-reactivity in all assays. This was further confirmed when investigating their detectability in authentic urine samples from cases of drug intake. The test responses also indicated additional reactivity from metabolites. The lowest detectability in spiked samples was observed for flutazolam, which shows the most divergent chemical structure compared with the other benzodiazepines. Overall, the KIMS II and CEDIA immunoassays, which both include enzymatic hydrolysis of conjugated forms, showed the highest, and EMIT II Plus the lowest degree of reactivity, for spiked parent substances and authentic urine specimens. The results of this study demonstrated that designer benzodiazepines can be detected in standard urine immunoassay drug screening and this should be taken into consideration when performing confirmation analysis.</p>}},
  author       = {{Pettersson Bergstrand, Madeleine and Helander, Anders and Hansson, Therese and Beck, Olof}},
  issn         = {{1942-7603}},
  keywords     = {{Designer benzodiazepines; Drug testing; Immunoassay; New psychoactive substances; Urine}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{640--645}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Drug Testing and Analysis}},
  title        = {{Detectability of designer benzodiazepines in CEDIA, EMIT II Plus, HEIA, and KIMS II immunochemical screening assays}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dta.2003}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/dta.2003}},
  volume       = {{9}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}