Development of a Urinary Screening Method, a Urinary Quantitative Confirmatory Method and Metabolic Profiling of the Semi-Synthetic Cannabinoid Hexahydrocannabinol in Humans Using UPLC-MS-QToF and UHPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

Hexahydrocannabinol HHC is a semi-synthetic drug structurally related to natural cannabinoids manufactured from hemp-extracts By cyclization and catalytic hydrogenation cannabidiol CBD is converted into a mixture of 9R -HHC and 9S -HHC The 9R -HHC epimer has THC-like psychoactive effects HHC was first reported to EMCDDA in August 2022 By April 2023 20 EU Member States have detected the substance Human metabolism studies and analytical methods for investigating HHC metabolites in human urine are lacking This study aims I to present an analytical method for screening HHC metabolites in human urine II to investigate the Phase I HHC metabolites by performing in vitro and in vivo metabolite identification studies of human liver microsome pHLM S9 fraction pS9 and urine samples III and to present a quantitative confirmatory method optimised by the investigation of authentic urine samples