A common phenomenon shows that ingestion of opium poppy shell-containing drugs can result in a “false-positive” urinalysis test result for mandatory or workplace heroin abuse screening. Owing to the short detection window (8 h in urine) of the characteristic heroin metabolite 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) confirmation or exclusion of heroin abusers still presents major challenges for toxicologists. In this work, we developed an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry method (UPLC-TOF-MS) with online data acquisition and multiple post-data-mining technologies combined with a multivariate statistical and batch validation analysis workflow to assess the characteristic urine metabolites of heroin abusers. Based on the proposed methods, 28 characteristic metabolites were structurally identified, and their fragmentation patterns and metabolite pathways were also summarized. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the internal relationship and similarities among the identified metabolites, and seven representative metabolites were selected as “Target-metabolites”. Multi-batch urine of samples of heroin abusers were certified based on the UPLC-MS/MS method for further validation of the practicability of using this method for routine analysis. Overall, the target-metabolites can be utilized as assistant “biomarkers” in workplace or mandatory drug screenings. This approach encourages further studies on the development of the “false-positive” identification system.

常见现象表明，摄入含罂粟壳的药物可能会导致强制性或工作场所海洛因滥用筛查的“假阳性”尿液分析结果。由于特征性海洛因代谢物6-单乙酰吗啡（6-MAM）的检测时间短（尿中检测时间为8小时），对海洛因滥用者的确认或排除仍然对毒理学家构成了重大挑战。在这项工作中，我们开发了一种超高性能液相色谱飞行时间质谱分析方法（UPLC-TOF-MS），该方法具有在线数据采集和多种事后数据挖掘技术，并结合了多元统计和批次验证分析工作流程评估海洛因滥用者的特征性尿代谢产物。根据提出的方法，在结构上鉴定了28种特征代谢物，并总结了它们的破碎模式和代谢途径。相关分析用于调查鉴定出的代谢物之间的内在联系和相似性，并选择了七个代表性代谢物作为“目标代谢物”。根据UPLC-MS / MS方法对海洛因滥用者样品的多批次尿液进行了认证，以进一步验证使用该方法进行常规分析的实用性。总体而言，目标代谢物可用作工作场所或强制性药物筛查的辅助“生物标志物”。这种方法鼓励进一步研究“假阳性”识别系统的发展。七个有代表性的代谢物被选为“目标代谢物”。根据UPLC-MS / MS方法对海洛因滥用者样品的多批次尿液进行了认证，以进一步验证使用该方法进行常规分析的实用性。总体而言，目标代谢物可用作工作场所或强制性药物筛查的辅助“生物标志物”。这种方法鼓励进一步研究“假阳性”识别系统的发展。七个有代表性的代谢物被选为“目标代谢物”。根据UPLC-MS / MS方法对海洛因滥用者样品的多批次尿液进行了认证，以进一步验证使用该方法进行常规分析的实用性。总体而言，目标代谢物可用作工作场所或强制性药物筛查的辅助“生物标志物”。这种方法鼓励进一步研究“假阳性”识别系统的发展。