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Molecular Advances in Forensic Toxicology: Innovations Approaches in Detection of New Psychoactive Substances

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Toxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2025 | Viewed by 1221

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Forensic Toxicology, Section of Legal and Forensic Medicine, Social Security and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Interests: toxicological analysis; new psychoactive substances; forensic toxicology; drug toxicity; drug diversion

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Forensic Toxicology, Section of Legal and Forensic Medicine, Social Security and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Interests: toxicological analysis; forensic toxicology; drug toxicity; new psychoactive substances; method validation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the field of forensic toxicology has expanded significantly, meaning that forensic toxicologists face new technical and analytical challenges in determining substances of abuse and their metabolites in biological and non-biological samples.

The introduction of an increasing number of new molecules into the illicit market of new psychoactive substances (NPSs) and an increase in the non-medical use of pharmaceuticals and drugs have made it more difficult to develop fast and sensitive analytical methods for the rapid determination of the molecular structure of parent compounds and their metabolites.

The high risk of consumption of new substances is closely related to the lack of knowledge of their potency and abuse potential, representing a serious public health problem.

Current methodological analyses include chromatographic techniques coupled with mass spectrometry for the molecular identification and quantification of psychotropic substances and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) approaches, which are used to identify new molecules and study their metabolites.

We would like to invite you to contribute to our Special Issue in International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS), entitled “Molecular Advances in Forensic Toxicology: Innovations Approaches in Detection of New Psychoactive Substances”, which will focus on the importance of the sample preparation, development and implementation of analytical methods for the molecular detection of psychotropic substances in biological and non-biological matrices.

Dr. Roberta Tittarelli
Dr. Giulio Mannocchi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • addiction
  • new psychoactive substances
  • mass spectrometry
  • biological matrices
  • diversion
  • forensic toxicology
  • drug testing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 1568 KiB  
Article
Development and Validation of a Fast and Sensitive UPLC-MS/MS Method for Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) in Hair, Application to Real Cases and Comparison with Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin (CDT) in Serum
by Leonardo Romani, Giulio Mannocchi, Federico Mineo, Francesca Vernich, Lucrezia Stefani, Luigi Tonino Marsella and Roberta Tittarelli
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(3), 1344; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26031344 - 5 Feb 2025
Viewed by 779
Abstract
Alcohol is responsible for an ever-increasing number of deaths worldwide, and many road accidents are caused by irresponsible drinking and driving. The use of biomarkers that can support a diagnosis of alcohol abuse is a very important tool that can improve the prevention [...] Read more.
Alcohol is responsible for an ever-increasing number of deaths worldwide, and many road accidents are caused by irresponsible drinking and driving. The use of biomarkers that can support a diagnosis of alcohol abuse is a very important tool that can improve the prevention of many alcohol-related diseases and serious traffic accidents. The main aim of our study was the full validation of a rapid and simple method by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to detect ethyl glucuronide in hair (hEtG). The method was successfully applied to n = 171 real hair samples collected from drivers convicted of driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs. A comparison of hEtG and serum Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin percentages (% CDT) was also performed to carefully evaluate the data in relation to the specific detection windows of the two different biomarkers. Most of the drivers with hEtG > 30 pg/mg were males in their thirties. None of the hEtG-positives had a serum % CDT above the cutoff (≥2%). Although some researchers suggest caution until solid data are available on the possible effects of interindividual variability that may influence EtG incorporation and metabolism, hEtG is a very useful biomarker of long-term alcohol exposure that shows greater reliability than traditional blood markers. Full article
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