E! 10628 PSYCHOMICS - A Predictive Parallell Production Platform for New Psychoactive Substances, LiU

Important results from the project

The main project aim was to capture a major market opportunity by developing a disruptive synthesis process for production of Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), their metabolites, and 13C labelled internal standards. Linköping university has focused on NPS metabolites. The major metabolites of several NPS have been identified. 65 metabolites have been synthesized in small scale and five metabolites of fentanyl derivatives have been synthesized in larger scale (99-882 mg). The latter have been included in the product catalogue of Chiron AS.

Expected long term effects

The project has delivered many reference substances that have been made commercially available by our Norwegian partner Chiron AS. Access to references is necessary for forensic and toxicological laboratories to produce forensic evidence and to generate knowledge regarding the extent to which these substances can be connected to serious health conditions and possible deaths. The availability of reference substances is also important for the drug classification process to be fast and accurate, which, in turn, affects the presence and abuse of narcotic substances in our society.

Approach and implementation

Identification and synthesis of NPS metabolites was possible thanks to key expertise at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (MEDFAK) and the Faculty of Science and Engineering (LITH) at Linköping university, and their ability to collaborate. To identify major NPS metabolites, incubations with human liver cells and urine sample analysis were carried out at MEDFAK. Thereafter, the exact chemical structures were confirmed through comparison to analytical data of reference substances synthesized at LITH. The work was conducted according to the timetable of the project.