FREIBURG, Germany: German researchers have developed a method to detect the presence of morphine, cocaine and ecstasy in teeth, among other drugs and their metabolites. The method, which requires only very little sample material, was based on specially prepared bovine teeth and has been successfully applied to the analysis of archaeological human material. It could benefit the work of forensic pathologists, anthropologists and archaeologists.

Teeth are often all that remains of the dead. Until now, there has been no means of using them in drug testing. Researchers at the University of Freiburg Medical Center, led by Dr Merja Neukamm and Prof. Volker Auwärter from the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Prof. Markus Altenburger of the Department of Operative Dentistry and Periodontology, have now been able to successfully apply dentine to drug analysis. “It has long been unclear whether tooth substance can generally be used for the detection of drugs or medication. Our study proves that it can,” said Auwärter, head of forensic toxicology at the medical centre. “The method can be used to detect even the smallest quantities of drugs.”

The researchers developed the procedure based on the dentine of bovine teeth, which has a structure that largely corresponds to that of human dentine but is guaranteed to be contamination free. For the detection of morphine, codeine, ecstasy, MDEA, amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine and a cocaine metabolite, only 0.05 g of tooth substance was needed. The drugs and metabolites were extracted from 50 mg of ground dentine powder by ultrasonication for 60 minutes in methanol three times.

For their study, the researchers placed the bovine dentine in an environment similar to that of the mouth. “In order to replicate the pathways of drugs as naturally as possible, we simulated mild dental caries," explained senior physician Altenburger. After nine days of application, the researchers analysed the tooth parts using a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer in multiple reaction monitoring mode and were able to detect the respective drug.

The new method offers a new analysis tool not only for forensic pathologists but also for anthropologists and archaeologists, as the efficient use of sample material is of great importance to them.

In another analysis based on the new method, the researchers examined a human tooth from the early Iron Age. “We were able to detect residue of betel nut in a 2,000-year-old tooth,” said Neukamm. For thousands of years, betel nut has been chewed as a stimulant and appetite suppressant in South-East Asia. The researchers now intend to expand their research by using human teeth from the deceased to investigate the influence of oral flora and the exact storage mechanism in the teeth.

The study, titled “Determination of drugs of abuse in bovine dentin using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry”, was published in the December issue of the Journal of Mass Spectrometry.

From http://www.dental-tribune.com