Identificação de praguicidas em amostras biológicas com aplicação forense: uma revisão narrativa

Abstract

Pesticides are relevant chemical compounds in poisoning, whether occupational, accidental or intentional. The main classes involved are organochlorines, organophosphates (IOFs), carbamates, pyrethroids and herbicides. Poisonings by rodenticides occur mainly by accidental ingestion and in attempts at self-extermination. In the forensic context, pesticide analyses can be performed on samples of blood, urine, gastric contents, viscera, among others. As these are samples with complex matrices, they must undergo processing to extract the analyte and reduce interference from matrix components. Chromatographic techniques are the "gold standard" in pesticide analysis because they allow the identification and/or quantification of analytes from several classes simultaneously. The objective of this work was to verify in the literature the chromatographic methodologies applied in the toxicological analysis of IOFs, carbamates and rodenticides in the forensic context, as well as to identify the types of biological samples and the most used processing methods. The search was conducted in Embase, Pubmed and LILACS databases using Health Sciences Descriptors, and 26 articles were selected. It was observed that the biological samples used in the studies were blood, urine, viscera (liver, stomach, spleen, lung, kidney), vitreous humor and gastric content. Liquid-liquid extraction, solid-liquid extraction, and immunoassays were used to extract the analytes of interest, as well as the traditional QuEChERS method and a modified version. The most commonly used chromatographic analysis technique was high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The analytes of interest in the studies were the pesticides themselves, their metabolites and biomarkers, such as IOFs-butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and IOFs-albumin adducts. The use of several methodologies is important to optimize the process and provide reliable results, considering that they involve procedures in the criminal field.