NIST software could help identify new forms of fentanyl

As the forms of illegal drugs change shape, so too must the means of combating them, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) believes it has created exactly that with a new, free software.

The tool is built on an algorithm that searches chemical databases and can identify new forms of fentanyl–a synthetic drug–even if the databases do not yet identify it. The algorithm is called Hybrid Similarity Search and it seeks to hone-in on similarities in drugs.

“If you search for one compound, you will find all the compounds that have a similar chemical structure,” Arun Moorthy, a NIST postdoc fellow who worked on the algorithm, said. “That should help law enforcement and public health authorities react more quickly when a new and deadly drug hits the streets.”

Fentanyl analogs–the new types of fentanyl–also contain molecular fingerprints of whatever is in their powder. In the case investigators do get a hit in the aforementioned databases, they can then conduct further tests to confirm. Since forensic chemists need to identify and work out the chemical structure of such drugs before presenting evidence in court, this is a critical, but time-consuming part of the process.

Developers count on that time delay to continue conducting business. This is one of the reasons they are constantly creating new analogs. By altering the atoms in the molecules involves, the compound’s fingerprint shifts, and it becomes that much harder to identify.

“Our algorithm corrects for those shifts, so you can find related compounds,” Stephen Stein, the NIST research chemist who oversaw the development of the algorithm, said.

Through the algorithm, a computer can search through an entire database hunting related compounds in suspected drugs.