Forensic Toxicology: Biological Sampling and Development of Analytical Techniques

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, forensic toxicology has become a reference discipline in cases of judicial and medico legal interest. The broad field of application of forensic toxicology includes workplace testing, identification of drugs and alcohol in biological matrices in cases of impaired driving (DUI), doping control of athletes, analysis of seized drugs and post-mortem investigation. In addition, technologies applied in forensic toxicology have a great impact on addressing the effects of environmental pollution, mainly related to the bioaccumulation of toxic metals, on human health.

A crucial aspect of toxicological investigations is the use appropriate sampling procedures for biological matrices. All of the specimens should be collected under a chain of custody and handled in order to avoid adulteration, contamination and degradation of the samples. Without these operative procedures, toxicological findings cannot be used for forensic purposes and will lose their probative value, making them worthless in Court.

The mission of a forensic toxicologist is also to produce accurate and reliable data, developing fast and sensitive analytical methods for the simultaneous identification and quantification of a large number of drugs and metabolites, leading to correct data interpretation. Current methodological analyses include chromatographic techniques coupled with mass spectrometry (e.g. GC/MS-UHPLC/MS-MS) for the identification and quantification of drugs, pharmaceuticals and psychotropic substances. Recently, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) approaches using time-of-flight or Orbitrap techniques increased the field of application of forensic toxicology, leading to more in-depth studies of drug metabolism, especially in cases of suspected intoxication by new psychoactive substances (NPS). Specifically, LC-HRMS plays an important role in the studies of the chemical structure of the phase I and phase II metabolites, as it is characterized by a higher selectivity and specificity and better sensitivity. This technique also enables the measurement of the elemental composition of molecules or fragments produced during ionisation, leading to the identification of the type of molecular structural changes of the metabolites, and in some cases, it also allows the characterization of the position of the chemical modifications in a particular part of the molecule. In forensic toxicology, these are some of the most used and reliable methods of analysis, both in the ante-mortem and post-mortem investigations.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Separations on forensic toxicology, which will be focused on the importance of biological specimens sampling, with particular attention to ante-mortem and post-mortem collection, the influence of suitable devices in pre-analytical phase and the development and the implementation of analytical methods for the detection of toxic substances including new psychoactive molecules, toxic metals and pollutants.

In this Special Issue, case reports, original research articles and reviews are particularly welcomed.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Luigi Tonino Marsella
Guest Editor

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• GC-MS
• LC-MS/MS
• forensic toxicology
• HRMS
• chain of custody
• specimen collection
• alternative matrices
• heavy metals
• biological samples
• drug seizures