Literature pertaining to three potential problematic areas in forensic drug urinalysis of amphetamines is reviewed. The first topic involves analytical artifacts causing false positive results for methamphetamine, as well as approaches to instrumental and chemical resolutions. The second topic addresses enantiomeric compositions, including sources, analytical approaches, metabolic mechanisms, a...

Background The serotonin transporter (SERT) terminates neurotransmission via reuptake of serotonin from the synaptic cleft. Upon stimulation with amphetamines, SERT switches into an outward transport mode to rapidly release serotonin. We have previously shown that truncation of the first 64 residues of SERT amino terminus leads to loss of amphetamine-induced efflux [1]. This was comparable to t...

BACKGROUND Polydrug abuse is a known problem among opioid-dependent patients receiving opioid maintenance treatment (OMT). However, improved laboratory diagnostics is required to reveal polydrug abuse in its current scope. Furthermore, there are few studies focusing on the relationship between polydrug abuse and adequacy of the dose of OMT medicine. This study aimed to evaluate the polydrug abu...

Conducting toxicology on post-mortem specimens provides a number of very significant challenges to the scientist. The range of additional specimens include tissues such as decomposing blood and other tissues, hair, muscle, fat, lung, and even larvae feeding on the host require special techniques to isolate a foreign substance and allow detection without interference from the matrix. A number of...

The human serotonin transporter (hSERT) regulates the spatial and temporal actions of serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission by removing 5-HT from the synapse. Previous studies have identified residues in the third transmembrane helix (TMH) that may be important for substrate translocation or antagonist recognition. We identified hSERT residues in TMH III that are divergent from Drosophila SERT and...

The human and Drosophila serotonin transporters (hSERT and dSERT, respectively) were used to explore differences in substrate properties. hSERT and dSERT showed similar Km values for 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT; serotonin) transport (1.2 and 0.9 micro M, respectively), suggesting similar recognition of 5-HT by the two species variants. Although dSERT cell surface expression was approximately 8-fo...

Large numbers of specimens (5000-18,000) were screened for amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine, marijuana, opiates, and phencyclidine by RIA (Roche), Emit II (Syva), and a new immunoassay, CEDIA (cloned enzyme donor immunoassay, Microgenics). All immunoassays performed equivalently for cocaine, opiates, and phencyclidine. All immunoassays detected the same amphetamine/methamphetamine-positive s...

The reliability of DrugWipe 5A on site test for principal drugs of abuse (cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, and opiates) detection in oral fluid was assessed by comparing the on-site results with headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis on samples extracted by the device collection pad. Oral fluid samples were collected at recreational...

The increased use of cathinone-type designer drugs, known as legal highs, has led to concerns about their potential neurotoxicity due to their similarity to methamphetamine (METH). Therefore, closer investigations of their toxic effects are needed. We investigated the effects of the cathinones 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethcathinone (MDMC) and the amphetamine METH on c...

OBJECTIVE To assess prevalence and risk factors associated with drug abuse among public elementary and high school students in the southern city of Florianópolis, Brazil. METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using a standardized questionnaire created during the 4th National Survey on Drug Abuse. Four hundred and seventy-eight students were interviewed by trained college...