Metabonomic analysis of the blood serum of crack resocialization process

Abstract

Crack-cocaine is a potent form of cocaine abuse and is considered, globally, as one of the most potentially dangerous illicit drugs. In Brazil, it is one of the most commonly used drugs because it is cheap and its effects are very quick. The identification of biomarkers in crack-cocaine users may add-in the search for new treatments for this drug addicts. This project aims a metabonomics study by ¹H NMR on blood serum samples from healthy and crack-cocaine dependent women. ¹H NMR spectral data were analyzed by statistical analysis techniques, such as principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and sparse PLS-DA (sPLS-DA). Subsequently, important biomarkers for crack-cocaine abuse were identified.