Procedure for setting control for the turnover of new, potentially hazardous psychoactive substances. Detection of metabolites of a new APINAC psychoactive compound in rat urine by gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection

The appearance of a new APINAC compound (AKB-57, ACBL(N)-018, adamantan-1-yl-1-pentyl-1H-indazol-3-carboxylate) in the Russian market of psychoactive drugs led to the need in setting measures of state control over its turnover and in solving the problem of categorizing this compound as a potentially hazardous psychoactive substance. To establish these control measures, it was necessary to determine the appropriate chromatographic–mass spectrometric characteristics and to search for its metabolites for their subsequent automated detection. The structure of an APINAC molecule has significant similarity with the molecules of other synthetic cannabinoids. In this paper, primary information on the metabolism of APINAC in the body of rats is presented. A number of putative metabolites, which are the products of hydrolysis of the initial structure and additional monohydroxylation of these products, carbonylation and carboxylation of the lateral N-pentyl chain of indazole-containing metabolites, were detected in rat urine by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry in the mode of measurement of exact masses and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. It was found that the formation of glucuronides is characteristic for 1-adamantol and its monohydroxylated metabolite and for the indazole-containing product of hydrolysis of APINAC. The presented mass spectra and retention characteristics of the detected metabolites can help in the detection of these (or similar) compounds in human urine.