Synthetic opioids are the primary contributor of drug related deaths in the United States with over 47,000 deaths in 2017, and with an additional estimated 1.7 million people suffering from substance abuse related to prescription opioids in the same year.[1] Until recently, scientific studies focused on how these opioid compounds bind to pain receptors in the human body,[2,3] and not many studies were performed outside of the medical field. As a result, the basic knowledge about the chemical interactions of these molecules with common solvents has not been fully established. It is reasonable to believe that conformational (structural) diversity could have important implications for the binding and reactivity of this class of molecules on surfaces. Here we study the conformational structure of two synthetic opioid molecules (carfentanil and remifentanil) in solution and their effect on binding on surfaces. We found carfentanil salts form conformers in more polar solvents such as water, whereas remifentanil salts form one conformer in water. Calculations show trends that remifentanil conformers require higher energies than carfentanil conformers. Additionally, neutral opioid structures (called the freebase) are more labile and lack stable conformers compared to the protonated opioid salt forms. Preliminary uptake studies were performed for both carfentanil and remifentanil on SiO2 and several Zr-based metal organic frameworks, and the results show both a porosity and solvent dependence. The goal of this study was to discover a better mechanistic understanding of how these potent opioids bind to the surface, which can transition to help other fields generate better decontamination procedures, new antidotes, and protection protocols to help first responders.

Characterization of carfentanil and remifentanil in solution and on surfaces

2019 Fall National Meeting

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