# Evaluating New Nicotine Standards for  Cigarettes - Core B

> **NIH NIH U54** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $390,651

## Abstract

Abstract 
The Biomarker Core provides state-of-the-art expertise and technology for the quantitation of metabolites of 
nicotine and tobacco smoke toxicants and carcinogens. This Core, housed in the new Cancer and 
Cardiovascular Research Building of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, is equipped with 14 
mass spectrometers of various designs and has decades of experience in the application of mass spectrometry 
techniques for the measurement of metabolites of tobacco smoke compounds and other environmental agents. 
The following compounds (biomarkers of toxicant exposure and toxicants in the products) will be quantified in 
this core: 
1. Total nicotine equivalents, the sum of total nicotine, total cotinine, total 3′-hydroxycotinine and nicotine N- 
oxide in urine ("total" refers to the free analyte and its glucuronide conjugate). These compounds account for 
>85% of the nicotine dose. 
2. Total 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL), the sum of free NNAL and its O- and N- 
glucuronides. NNAL is a metabolite of the tobacco-specific lung carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)- 
1-butanone (NNK), found in the urine of all tobacco users, but never in non-users unless they have been 
exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke. 
3. Mercapturic acids of the toxicants acrolein, crotonaldehyde, benzene, and acrylonitrile. 
4. Anatabine, a minor tobacco alkaloid to be used to quantify the use of usual brand cigarettes when the study 
requires the use of very low nicotine content cigarettes (low in anatabine), but allows the use of e-cigarettes or 
nicotine replacement therapies (NRT). 
5. The ratio of 3-hydroxycotinine to cotinine in saliva as a measure of nicotine metabolism, 
6. Toxic and carcinogenic constituents in smokeless tobacco and in e cigarette liquid and vapor: nicotine, 
anatabine and other minor tobacco alkaloids, NNK, and volatile toxicants acrolein, crotonaldehyde, benzene, 
and acrylonitrile.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10122930
- **Project number:** 5U54DA031659-10
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHEN S HECHT
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $390,651
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2011-09-15 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10122930

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10122930, Evaluating New Nicotine Standards for  Cigarettes - Core B (5U54DA031659-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10122930. Licensed CC0.

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