Establishment of Broad-Specificity Monoclonal Antibody-Based Immunoassay for Rapid Detection of Indole-Type and Indazole-Type Synthetic Cannabinoids and Metabolites

Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) have emerged as one of the most severely abused categories of new psychoactive substances (NPS), exacerbating the global drug problem and posing significant threats to public health. Presently, a class of new amide-type SCs featuring an indazole or indole core has been identified in numerous cases of illegal drug use, but there is still a lack of comprehensive analysis methods of SC detection. Herein, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) 2E4 and AE6 targeting 36 indole-type and indazole-type SCs and their metabolites with IC₅₀ ranging from 0.14 to 85.28 ng/mL were prepared and the molecular mechanism of antibody recognition was elaborated. We established the indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA) and gold immunochromatography assay (GICA) based on mAbs 2E4 and AE6 to detect indazole-type and indole-type SCs in urine and hair samples. Under optimal conditions, the proposed method detected ADB-BUTINACA (an indazole-type SC) with limits of detection (LODs) of 0.11 ng/mL for urine and 0.024 ng/mg for hair by ic-ELISA, and 1.02 ng/mL for urine and 0.046 ng/mg for hair by GICA; the LODs of 4F-MDMB-BUTICA (an indole-type SC) detection was 0.036 ng/mL for urine and 0.012 ng/mg for hair by ic-ELISA, and 0.54 ng/mL for urine and 0.03 ng/mg for hair by GICA. Collectively, our study provides a comprehensive foundation for the rapid screening and quantitation of SC derivatives in biological samples.