English 
Italian Sviluppo e validazione di un nuovo metodo in UHPLC-MS/MS per la determinazione di cannabidiolo e di tetraidrocannabinolo e relativi metaboliti in matrice pilifera. Applicazione su pazienti trattati con cannabis medica
A new UHPLC-MS/MS method to assess cannabidiol and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and respective metabolites in hair. Application to patients treated with medical cannabis
AUTORI
Department of Excellence-Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60121 Ancona, Italy
National Centre on Addiction and Doping, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
ABSTRACT
A new UHPLC-MS/MS method to assess cannabidiol and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and respective metabolites in hair. Application to patients treated with medical cannabis.
Introduction: several countries have recently approved the use of cannabis flowering tops with standardized amount of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), cannabidiol (CBD) for the treatment of different diseases. Therapeutic monitoring of medical cannabis products administered to patients for the established pathologies is rarely carried out.
Methods: the aim of this study is to develope, and fully validate an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method to quantify Δ9-THC, CBD, and metabolites, i.e., 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC (THC-COOH), 11-hydroxy-THC (11-OH-THC) cannabidiol-7-oic acid (7-COOH-CBD), 7-hydroxycannabidiol (7-OH-CBD), 6-α-hydroxycannabidiol (6-α-OH-CBD) and 6-β-hydroxycannabidiol (6-β-OH-CBD) in hair samples of patients treated with medical cannabis.
Results: the validation results indicate that the method is accurate (average inter/intra-day CV, <10%), precise (inter/ intra-day imprecision, <10%), and fast (10 minutes run time). Average hair concentrations in four patients treated with different formulations of medical cannabis were 2.75 ng/mg Δ9-THC, 2.87 ng/mg 11-OH-THC, and 0.32 ng/mg THC-COOH (n = 3); 1.65 ng/mg CBD, 2.73 ng/mg 7-OH-CBD, 1.29 ng/mg 7-COOH-CBD, 0.35 ng/mg 6-α-OH-CBD, and 0.03 ng/mg 6-β-OH-CBD.
Discussion: the proposed method proved to be suitable for a fast and sensitive determination of all target compounds allowing high throughput testing in individuals monitored for medical cannabis treatments.