Drug-related death: adulterants from cocaine preparations in lung tissue and blood.

The abuse of drugs such as street cocaine is known to cause a variety of toxic effects, some of which involve the lungs and often induce lethal complications. While the toxicity of cocaine itself is reviewed well, the influence of toxic effects of its adulterants on the human body is not thoroughly studied. Therefore, we examined heart blood, femoral vein blood and lung tissue from 11 cases for typically used adulterants in cocaine preparations and check whether if the concentrations in the lung tissue are higher than in the blood. The adulterants were isolated using solid-phase (SPE) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and quantified via high-pressure-liquid-chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC/TOF-MS). Five adulterants, i.e., phenacetin, lidocaine, diltiazem, levamisole and hydroxyzine, were detected. We found out that the concentration of these substances was often higher in the lung than in the analogous analysed body fluids. It should therefore be considered whether - for the determination in the cause of death - the lung should be examined in addition to heart blood, urine or brain tissue.

Studies on the phase I metabolism of the new designer drug 3-fluoromethcathinone using rabbit liver slices.

The metabolism of the novel designer drug 3-fluoromethcathinone (3-FMC), sold as "legal highs", was investigated in vitro via cryopreserved rabbit liver slices. The pharmacological properties and toxicological effects of 3-FMC and its metabolites are not known yet. It can be assumed that 3-FMC will cause effects similar to 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone) and methcathinone. For the metabolism studies, pretests were performed with rabbit liver slices incubated with kavain to evaluate optimal conditions. Finally, six known metabolites of kavain were revealed and therefore sufficient information about the suitability of the enzyme system of the rabbit liver slices was obtained. Under optimized conditions, 3-FMC was added to Krebs-Henseleit buffer, pH 7.4 containing NADPH and bicarbonate and incubated with a single rabbit liver slice at 37°C. The metabolism was monitored at 5, 30 and 180 min, respectively. The metabolites formed via the former cryopreserved rabbit liver slices were examined by LC/MS-TOF. Metabolites were identified by their exact masses and isotopic patterns. 3-Fluorocathinone, 3-fluorocathinone-imine, hydroxy-3-fluoromethcathinone and 3-fluoromethcathinone-diol were formed as the main metabolites.