Pharmaceuticals
July 8, 2026
Rodrigo Foss da Silva, Lennon Machado Alves, Fernanda Conte et al.
Background/Objectives: The study sought to investigate the neurotoxicity of NBOHs, which are a class of new psychoactive substances (NPSs) that act as agonists of serotonin 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors, resulting in hallucinogenic effects similar to those of LSD, often found in paper blotters. Methods: Differentiated SH-SY5Y cells were incubated for 24 h with 0.5, 1.0, 3.5, 5 and 10 nM of the...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
June 10, 2026
Bruno Pereira Dos Santos, Vítor Camargo Pôrto, Letícia Birk et al.
Ecstasy-type drugs are the most frequently seized synthetic drugs in Brazil, usually containing a mixture of MDMA and its analog MDA. In recent years, an increasing number of samples have been found to contain only MDA, possibly reflecting shifts in the synthetic routes of ecstasy-type substances during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the exclusive use of MDA remains poorly characterized, and...
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
May 14, 2025
Letícia Birk, Bruno Pereira Dos Santos, Sarah Eller et al.
3 citations
The detection of new psychoactive substances in postmortem blood is of primary importance for the investigation of related deaths. A method using cork as a biosorbent in a solid-phase microextraction with LC-MS/MS analysis was developed and validated for the determination of synthetic cathinones and related substances in blood. The sample preparation method employed 200 µL of sample and 30 mg...
Forensic Toxicology
April 24, 2025
Letícia Birk, Bruno Pereira Dos Santos, Daniela Souza Ossanes et al.
2 citations
Toxicological analyses of postmortem blood samples are essential to elucidate forensic cases involving toxic agents, such as illicit drugs. A simple method for determining stimulant substances in postmortem blood samples through protein precipitation and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed and applied in nearly 1000 samples from Brazilian forensic cases. For...