Cocaine is an environmental contaminant in North America. Benzoylecgonine (BZE) is the major urinary metabolite of cocaine in horses and humans, and urinary detection of BZE is highly sensitive. Human workplace drug testing typically uses a confirmatory “cutoff” for BZE of 150 ng/ml in urine. A number of horse-racing jurisdictions have adopted similar urinary “cutoffs” for BZE; this communicati...

Recently, LeBeau and Montgomery (1) informed readers that the FBI Laboratory decided to suspend cocaine analysis in hair except children’s hair. This decision was explained by newer research findings, according to which the criteria of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) for a hair sample positive for cocaine (2) can also be met in contaminated hair specimen (...

BACKGROUND Currently, there is no specific pharmacological therapy with established efficacy for the treatment of cocaine dependence. The aim of this study was to determine the safety, tolerability and the effects of aripiprazole and ropinirole in patients with cocaine dependence. METHODS This randomized clinical trial of 12-week duration was carried out on 28 consecutive patients with cocain...

This study investigates the effect of antibody density on the kinetics of a solid-phase displacement immunoassay. Conducted in flow under nonequilibrium conditions, the assay utilizes a monoclonal antibody to the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, which has been immobilized onto Sepharose beads and saturated with fluorophore labeled antigen. Displacement of antibody-bound labeled antigen by no...

The monoclonal antibody (mAb), h2E2, is a humanized version of the chimeric human/murine anti-cocaine mAb 2E2. The recombinant h2E2 protein was produced in vitro from a transfected mammalian cell line and retained high affinity (4 nM Kd) and specificity for cocaine over its inactive metabolites benzoylecgonine (BE) and ecgonine methyl ester. In rats, pharmacokinetic studies of h2E2 (120 mg/kg i...

The stimulant effects of cocaine are relatively short lived, as evidenced by the increase in heart rate that peaks at about 60 minutes after cocaine administration and declines thereafter (Farre et al. 1993). This duration of effect is largely due to the rapid hydrolysis of cocaine to two major deesterified metabolites that appear in serum and urine, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester (f...

High concentrations of cocaethylene (EC), the ethyl ester of benzoylecgonine, were measured in the blood of individuals who had concurrently used cocaine and ethanol. Since the powerful reinforcing effects of cocaine appear to be dependent on inhibition of dopamine reuptake in brain, we compared the effects of EC on the dopamine uptake system and its behavioral effects with those of cocaine. EC...

Analyzing blood serum for opioids, cocaine and metabolites is a routine task in forensic laboratories. The most commonly used methods involve several manual or partly-automated sample preparation steps such as protein precipitation, solid phase extraction, evaporation and derivatization followed by GC/MS or LC/MS determination. In this study a comprehensively automated method is compared with a...

Cocaine abuse, a growing social problem, is currently estimated from population surveys, consumer interviews and crime statistics. A new approach based on the analysis of cocaine (COC) and metabolites, benzoylecgonine (BE) and ecgonine methyl ester (EME), in water samples was applied to 28 rivers and 37 waste water treatment plants in Belgium using solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatograp...

Interference by substances coeluting with targeted drugs is a general problem for gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis of urine. To characterize these interferences, we examined human urine samples containing benzoylecgonine and fluconazole, and other drug combinations including deuterated internal standards that coelute (ISd,c) with target drugs, by selected-ion monitoring (SIM) and...