Street-Like Synthesis of Krokodil Results in the Formation of an Enlarged Cluster of Known and New Morphinans

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2017

Authors

Jose X Soares (Author) Other; Alves, EA (Author) Other; Silva, AMN (Author) Other; de Figueiredo, NG (Author) Other; Neves, JF (Author) Other; Sara Cravo (Author) FFUP; Maria Rangel (Author) ICBAS; Pereira Netto, ADP (Author) Other; Felix Carvalho (Author) FFUP; Ricardo Jorge Dinis Oliveira (Author) FMUP; Carlos Afonso (Author) FFUP

Journal

Title: Chemical Research in Toxicology

Vol. 30

Pages: 1609-1621

ISSN: 0893-228X

Publisher: American Chemical Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 10 Citations

Scopus - 11 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00M-XQT

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrestox.7b00126

Abstract (EN): "Krokodil" is the street name for a homemade injectable drug that has been used as a cheap substitute for heroin. Codeine is the opioid starting material for krokodil synthesis, and desomorphine is claimed to be the main opioid of krokodil and the main component responsible for its addictive and psychoactive characteristics. However, due to its peculiar; manufacture, using cheap raw materials, krokodil is composed of a large and complex mixture of different substances. In order to shed some light upon the chemical complexity of krokodil, its profiling was conducted by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a photo diode array detector (RP-HPLC-DAD) and by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-IT-Orbitrap-MS). Besides desomorphine, codeine, and morphine, profiting from the high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data, an endeavor to study the morphinans content in krokodil was set for the first time. Considering codeine as the only morphinan precursor and the possible chemical transformations that can occur during krokodil synthesis, the morphinan chemical space was designed, and 95 compounds were defined. By making use of the morphinan chemical space in krokodil, the exact masses featured by HRMS, and the morphinan mass fragmentations patterns, a targeted identification approach was designed and implemented. The proposed 95 morphinans were searched using the full scan chromatogram of krokodil, and findings were validated by mass fragmentation of the correspondent precursor ions (MS2 spectra). Following this effort, a total of 54 morphinans were detected, highlighting the fact that these additional morphinans may contribute to the psychotropic effects of krokodil.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 13