Can JWH-210 and JWH-122 be detected in adipose tissue four weeks after single oral drug administration to rats?

Synthetic cannabinoids such as alkylindole derivatives entered the illicit drug market worldwide a few years ago. Only a few data are available concerning their pharmacokinetics, in particular their distribution and persistence in adipose tissue. For the present study, rats were administered a single 20 mg/kg oral dose of JWH-210 or JWH-122. After one month, they were dissected and adipose tissue was taken in order to study whether JWH-210 and JWH-122 persisted in this body sample. After extraction, the samples were analyzed by liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometry (LC-QTrap-MS). Validation of the analytical method for adipose tissue is also presented. The results of the matrix effects determination ranged between 30.6 and 43.8%. The limits of detection for JWH-210 and JWH-122 were 0.8 and 1.0 ng/g and lower limits of quantification were 3.7 and 2.1 ng/g, respectively. Calibration curves ranged from 10 to 75 ng/g for JWH-210 and from 5 to 50 ng/g for JWH-122. Intra- and interday precision values were lower than 15% and bias values within ±15%. Applying this method, in adipose tissue specimens obtained 4 weeks after single drug administration, JWH-210 and JWH-122 were detected in concentrations of 116 and 9 ng/g, respectively.