27 research outputs found
Measuring substance use in the club setting: a feasibility study using biochemical markers
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During the last few decades the use of club drugs (e.g., cocaine, amphetamines) has been of increased concern in nightlife settings. Traditionally, surveys have been used to estimate the use of club drugs, however, they mostly rely on self-reports which may not be accurate. Recent advances have allowed for readily accessible drug testing methods such as oral fluid drug testing. Nevertheless, research using oral fluid sampling to measure the frequency of drug use in the club environment is scarce. The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of measuring the frequency of alcohol and drug use among Swedish clubbers using breath alcohol and oral fluid drug testing.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>The setting was a 40 hour electronic music dance event (EMDE) on a cruise ship on the Baltic Sea, departing from Sweden, with 875 passengers. Groups of participants at the EMDE were randomly invited to participate. Data were collected with face-to-face and self-administered questionnaires. Further, oral fluid samples were collected to determine illicit drug use, and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels were measured using a breath analyzer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 422 passengers were asked to participate in the study whereof 21 declined (5.0% refusal rate). Of the 401 study participants (accounting for 45.8% of all attendees), 5 declined oral fluid drug testing. Results show that there was a discrepancy between self-reported and actual drug use as 10.1% of the participants were positive on illicit drug use (amphetamines, ecstasy/MDMA, cannabis, cocaine), while only 3.7% of the participants reported drug use during the last 48 hours. The average BAC level was 0.10% and 23.7% had BAC levels ≥ 0.15%, while 5.9% had levels below the detection limit. The mean BAC levels for the illicit drug users were significantly higher (<it>p </it>= 0.004) than for non-drug users (0.13% vs. 0.10%). Self-reported AUDIT-C scores (using a threshold of ≥ 5 for men and ≥ 4 for women) revealed that 76.0% of the men and 80.7% of the women had risky alcohol consumption patterns.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study indicates that it is feasible to conduct breath alcohol and oral fluid drug testing in a Swedish club setting.</p
Development and validation of an automated liquid-liquid extraction GC/MS method for the determination of THC, 11-OH-THC, and free THC-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) from blood serum
Quantitative analysis of multiple illicit drugs in preserved oral fluid by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
LC-MS/MS Analysis of 13 Benzodiazepines and Metabolites in Urine, Serum, Plasma, and Meconium
A GRA1 DNA Vaccine Primes Cytolytic CD8(+) T Cells To Control Acute Toxoplasma gondii Infection
Protective immunity against Toxoplasma gondii is known to be mediated mainly by T lymphocytes and gamma interferon (IFN-γ). The contribution of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-lymphocyte subsets to protective immune responses against T. gondii infection, triggered by a GRA1 (p24) DNA vaccine, was assessed in this study. In vitro T-cell depletion experiments indicated that both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell subsets produced IFN-γ upon restimulation with a T. gondii lysate. In addition, the GRA1 DNA vaccine elicited CD8(+) T cells that were shown to have cytolytic activity against parasite-infected target cells and a GRA1-transfected cell line. C3H mice immunized with the GRA1 DNA vaccine showed 75 to 100% protection, while 0 to 25% of the mice immunized with the empty control vector survived challenge with T. gondii cysts. In vivo T-cell depletion experiments indicated that CD8(+) T cells were essential for the survival of GRA1-vaccinated C3H mice during the acute phase of T. gondii infection, while depletion of CD4(+) T cells led to an increase in brain cyst burden during the chronic phase of infection
UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for direct analysis of drugs of abuse in oral fluid for DUID assessment
An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography\u2013
electrospray ionization\u2013tandem mass spectrometry method for
the direct analysis in oral fluid (OF) of several abused drugs and
metabolites in a single chromatographic run was set up and
validated. Amphetamine, methamphetamine, morphine, O-6-
monoacetylmorphine, cocaine, codeine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine
(MDMA), methylenedioxyethylamphetamine,
methylenedioxyamphetamine, methadone,
benzoylecgonine (BEG), \uc49-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),
ketamine, and cocaethylene were determined in a single
chromatographic run with no sample pretreatment, after
addition of the respective deuterated internal standards. The
method was designed to perform a confirmation analysis on
the residual OF samples after the preliminary on-site screening
test, and it was applied on preservative buffers from different
devices (Mavand Rapidstat, Concateno DDS, and Greiner
Bio-One) or on neat OF samples. The method was suitable to
be applied to the small amounts of sample available for the
confirmatory analysis after the preliminary on-site screening
or on undiluted OF samples. Limits of detection varied from 5
(morphine) to 0.2 ng/mL (methamphetamine, MDMA, BEG,
and cocaethylene). The method was linear for all the
substances involved, giving quadratic correlation coefficients
of >0.99 in all the different preservative buffers checked. In addition, repeatability and accuracy were satisfactory for the
majority of the substances, except for a few cases. The
developed method was subsequently applied to 466 residual
samples from on-site screening performed by police officers.
Of these samples, 74 showed the presence of cocaine and
metabolites; THC was detected in 49 samples. Two samples
showed codeine and morphine while MDMA was detected in
11 samples and ketamine in four samples