The Daily Bulletin

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar "Hippuric Acid as a Potential Biomarker to Detect Substance Abuse in Urine," presented by Dominique Boscarino, forensic science master's degree student at Buffalo State, on Thursday, April 4, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 173.

Abstract
Hippuric acid (HA), the glycine conjugate of benzoic acid, is one of the urine metabolites. In a healthy person, HA concentrations in urine normally remain low but vary slightly depending on food intake and medications. In humans, toluene exposure is known to elevate urine HA levels, hence it used as a biomarker. In our context, we aimed to develop analytical methods that can measure urine HA concentrations, both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. For quantitative analysis, we developed a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Using our protocol, we successfully calculated LOD and LOQ. Likewise, a presumptive test was developed that can unambiguously discern the presence of HA in a test sample from control. For this, a fluorophore was treated with a sample under investigation and the presence of HA was marked by the appearance of a pink color, while a control sample color remains yellow. 

In the United States, cocaine is the second most popular illegal recreational drug. Cocaine is metabolized by serum and liver esterase into ecgonine methyl ester and benzoyl ecgonine. During this process, the resultant side-product, benzoic acid, couples with glycine before it is excreted through urine as HA. Considering this fundamental metabolic mechanism, we hypothesized that HA concentration should elevate in the urine samples of illicit drug users. To simulate this, we created HA-spiked artificial urine samples and successfully quantified HA concentrations by instrumental analytical approach and confirmed by presumptive test. Using our newly developed protocols, we successful deconvoluted the presence of HA in urine samples both qualitatively and quantitatively. However, the validation of these methods in the context of urine HA concentrations in illicit drug users is our future research goal.