Prof. Bezhan CHANKVETADZE
Tbilisi State University
Since 2006, Prof. Bezhan Chankvetadze has been the Chair of Physical and Analytical Chemistry at Tbilisi State University, where he also serves as the Director of the Institute of Physical and Analytical Chemistry. His research is primarily focused on separation science, chiral separations, enantioselective recognition, and pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis, with significant contributions to the fields of capillary electrophoresis and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for enantiomeric separations.
Prof. Chankvetadze's laboratory employs state-of-the-art analytical and separation techniques, including chiral stationary phase development, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and computational chemistry, to investigate the fundamental principles of chiral recognition and enantiomer separation mechanisms.
Isomeric drugs of abuse: Current analytical challenges and possible solutions
Bezhan Chankvetadze
Institute of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
*bezhan.chankvetadze@tsu.ge
Substitution of controlled psychoactive substances on the illicit market with their isomers which are not (yet) controlled by the regulatory authorities is well established strategy. This quite popular and advanced approach creates serious challenges for toxicological and forensic laboratories, as well as from the legal point of view. Positional isomers on the aromatic ring having the same exact mass and sometimes very similar fragmentation pattern cannot be easily and reliably differentiated by using mass spectrometry [1]. Their chromatographic separation due to minor differences in their structure and physical and chemical properties and thus chromatographic retention (factor) is also difficult. If one deals with stereoisomers, then application of chiral chromatography is necessary. From the legal point of view differentiation between stereo- and structural isomers becomes critical if these isomers have different legal status. The examples of this are amphetamine, methamphetamine and methorphan. Thus, when dealing with these drugs of abuse prosecutors should know which enantiomer they deal with. Similar is the case with positional isomers. Beside legal status pharmacology and toxicology of positional isomers and enantiomers can be also very different. Therefore, development of methods for precise determination of positional isomers and stereoisomers of drugs of abuse is very hot topic [2]. This presentation describes the ways for solution of these challenges taking as examples 2-, 3- and 4-chloro-methcathinones [3] and 2-, 3- and 4-methyl-methcathinones [4].
Acknowledgement:
Bezhan Chankvetadze thanks Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia for the partial support of this study through the grant № FR-22-971 for fundamental research.
References:
[1] Romańczuk, A.; Rojek, S.; Synowiec, K. et al. J. Anal. Toxicol. 2023, 47, 797–806.
[2] Busardo, F.P.; Tini, A.; Lo Faro A.F. et al. Tr. Anal. Chem. 2024, 175, 117733.
[3] Kobidze, G.; Sprega, G.; Balloni, A. et al. J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 2024, 248, 116293.
[4] Kobidze, G. Lo Faro A.F., Balloni, A. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2025, 175, 117733.
