Drug vaping applied to cannabis: Is "Cannavaping" a therapeutic alternative to marijuana?

Therapeutic cannabis administration is increasingly used in Western countries due to its positive role in several pathologies. Dronabinol or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) pills, ethanolic cannabis tinctures, oromucosal sprays or table vaporizing devices are available but other cannabinoids forms can be used. Inspired by the illegal practice of dabbing of butane hashish oil (BHO), cannabinoids from cannabis were extracted with butane gas, and the resulting concentrate (BHO) was atomized with specific vaporizing devices. The efficiency of "cannavaping," defined as the "vaping" of liquid refills for e-cigarettes enriched with cannabinoids, including BHO, was studied as an alternative route of administration for therapeutic cannabinoids. The results showed that illegal cannavaping would be subjected to marginal development due to the poor solubility of BHO in commercial liquid refills (especially those with high glycerin content). This prevents the manufacture of liquid refills with high BHO concentrations adopted by most recreational users of cannabis to feel the psychoactive effects more rapidly and extensively. Conversely, "therapeutic cannavaping" could be an efficient route for cannabinoids administration because less concentrated cannabinoids-enriched liquid refills are required. However, the electronic device marketed for therapeutic cannavaping should be carefully designed to minimize potential overheating and contaminant generation

A simple gas chromatography method for the analysis of monoethanolamine in air

A simple method determining airborne monoethanolamine has been developed. Monoethanolamine determination has traditionally been difficult due to analytical separation problems. Even in recent sophisticated methods, this difficulty remains as the major issue often resulting in time-consuming sample preparations. Impregnated glass fiber filters were used for sampling. Desorption of monoethanolamine was followed by capillary GC analysis and nitrogen phosphorous selective detection. Separation was achieved using a specific column for monoethanolamines (35% diphenyl and 65% dimethyl polysiloxane). The internal standard was quinoline. Derivatization steps were not needed. The calibration range was 0.5-80 μg/mL with a good correlation (R(2) = 0.996). Averaged overall precisions and accuracies were 4.8% and -7.8% for intraday (n = 30), and 10.5% and -5.9% for interday (n = 72). Mean recovery from spiked filters was 92.8% for the intraday variation, and 94.1% for the interday variation. Monoethanolamine on stored spiked filters was stable for at least 4 weeks at 5°C. This newly developed method was used among professional cleaners and air concentrations (n = 4) were 0.42 and 0.17 mg/m(3) for personal and 0.23 and 0.43 mg/m(3) for stationary measurements. The monoethanolamine air concentration method described here was simple, sensitive, and convenient both in terms of sampling and analytical analysis

Protective effect of glial cells against lipopolysaccharide-mediated blood-brain barrier injury

International audienceNumerous infections of the central nervous system are characterized by altered blood-brain barrier (BBB) functions leading to brain damage. To study the mechanisms that cause BBB disruption in these pathologies, we used an in vitro BBB model consisting of a coculture of brain capillary endothelial cells and glial cells. When these endothelial cells were submitted alone to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), added in the luminal compartment, a huge increase in the paracellular permeability of the monolayer was observed. As glial cells surrounding the brain capillaries are of prime importance in specifying at least some cellular properties, we investigated whether glial cells would be able to modulate this endothelial cell response to LPS. When endothelial cells were incubated with LPS added luminally, in the presence of glial cells, LPS surprisingly had no effect on the endothelial cell monolayer permeability, suggesting a protective effect of glial cells on the LPS-mediated injury. As in our experiments, the endotoxin does not interact with the glial cell population. This protective effect suggests a close communication between cerebral endothelial cells and brain parenchymal cells. In our coculture model, the glial cell population is a mixture of astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglial cells. Further experiments performed with purified astrocytes showed that microglial cells or oligodendrocytes, or both, are essential for the complete protection of the endothelial cell monolayer integrity. All these results are direct evidence for a modulatory effect of glial cells on brain capillary endothelial cell response in the pathogenesis of endotoxemia

Mercury analysis in hair: Comparability and quality assessment within the transnational COPHES/DEMOCOPHES project

Human biomonitoring (HBM) is an effective tool for assessing actual exposure to chemicals that takes into account all routes of intake. Although hair analysis is considered to be an optimal biomarker for assessing mercury exposure, the lack of harmonization as regards sampling and analytical procedures has often limited the comparison of data at national and international level. The European-funded projects COPHES and DEMOCOPHES developed and tested a harmonized European approach to Human Biomonitoring in response to the European Environment and Health Action Plan. Herein we describe the quality assurance program (QAP) for assessing mercury levels in hair samples from more than 1800 mother-child pairs recruited in 17 European countries. To ensure the comparability of the results, standard operating procedures (SOPs) for sampling and for mercury analysis were drafted and distributed to participating laboratories. Training sessions were organized for field workers and four external quality-assessment exercises (ICI/EQUAS), followed by the corresponding web conferences, were organized between March 2011 and February 2012. ICI/EQUAS used native hair samples at two mercury concentration ranges (0.20-0.71 and 0.80-1.63) per exercise. The results revealed relative standard deviations of 7.87-13.55% and 4.04-11.31% for the low and high mercury concentration ranges, respectively. A total of 16 out of 18 participating laboratories the QAP requirements and were allowed to analyze samples from the DEMOCOPHES pilot study. Web conferences after each ICI/EQUAS revealed this to be a new and effective tool for improving analytical performance and increasing capacity building. The procedure developed and tested in COPHES/DEMOCOPHES would be optimal for application on a global scale as regards implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Mercury analysis in hair: Comparability and quality assessment within the transnational COPHES/DEMOCOPHES project journaltitle: Environmental Research articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2014.11.014 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.status: publishe