The term "cannabis" includes a plethora of products, both legal and illicit ones, containing cannabinoids. These are embedded in complex regulatory frameworks, as they are sold in different markets and consumed for different reasons and by different routes. Such features complicate the sharing of pharmaco-toxicological data and the assessment of proper guidelines for clinicians providing cannabinoid-based therapies. In fact, uncertainties remain about the toxicity and adverse effects from long-term use of medicinal cannabis, thus highlighting the necessity for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and pharmacovigilance for products available to patients. Exploiting TDM to guide cannabinoid dosing represents a crucial tool as pharmacokinetic parameters may vary depending on the prescribed products, their formulation and the administration route. Additionally, with chronic use, cannabinoids may accumulate in adipose tissues, with plasma redistribution occurring with weight loss, thus potentially affecting plasma levels. Within this research work, for the first time a bioanalytical platform including a panel of smart, minimally invasive blood microsampling approaches was developed to be applied for the patient-centric TDM of subjects undergoing cannabinoid therapies. In fact, volumetric-, capillary- and microfluidic-based microsampling technologies could be exploited for a simplified self- and home-sampling by the patients themselves. Then, the samples can be shipped without special precautions to the analytical lab. For this purpose, blood microsampling has been combined with an effective, straight-forward and fully validated LC-MS/MS method for the analysis of cannabinoids (THC, THC-OH, THC-COOH and CBD). Method validation provided good results in terms of sensitivity (≤ 0.2 ng/mL), precision (RSD &lt; 7.6%) and accuracy (&gt; 87%). The proof-of-concept application, assessment of users of cannabis-based products provided promising results, showing good agreement with those obtained by classical plasma analysis. The feasible, yet effective microsampling protocols proposed herein for the TDM of patients undergoing cannabinoid treatment could represent a promising approach to expand the knowledge on the pharmaco-toxicological properties of the many marketed products. Moreover, the proposed approach could serve as a useful tool for clinicians in order to tailor pharmacological regimens exploiting home-sampling, thus paving the way for cutting-edge personalized medicine.

Patient-centric smart biosampling for the monitoring of cannabinoid-based therapies

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.