Development and validation of an EI-GC/MS method for the determination of sertraline and its major metabolite desmethyl-sertraline in blood

Recent Advances in Analytical Techniques for Antidepressants Determination in Complex Biological Matrices: A Review

Depression is one of the most prevalent but severe of mental disorders, affecting thousands of individuals across the globe. Depression, in its most extreme form, may result in self-harm and an increased likelihood of suicide. Antidepressant drugs are first-line medications to treat mental disorders. Unfortunately, these medications are also prescribed for other in- and off-label conditions, such as deficit/hyperactivity disorders, attention disorders, migraine, smoking cessation, eating disorders, fibromyalgia, pain, and insomnia. This results in an increase in the use of antidepressant medications, leading to clinical and forensic overdose cases that could be either accidental or deliberate. The findings revealed that people who used antidepressants had a 33% greater chance of dying sooner than expected, compared to those who did not take the medications. Analytical techniques for precisely identifying and detecting antidepressants and their metabolic products in a variety of biological matrices are greatly needed to be developed and made available. Hence, this study attempts to discuss various analytical techniques used to identify and determine antidepressants in various biological matrices, which include urine, blood, oral fluid (saliva), and tissues, which are commonly encountered in clinical and forensic science laboratories.

Identification and characterization of forced degradation products of sertraline hydrochloride using UPLC, ultra-high-performance liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole-Time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS/MS) and NMR

The present study focused on the forced degradation behavior of sertraline hydrochloride (SRT), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The drug was exposed to different stressed conditions (hydrolytic, oxidative, thermal and photolytic) according to ICH Q1A (R2) guidelines. The study revealed that SRT was stable in hydrolytic (acidic, basic and neutral) and thermal degradation conditions. In contrast, five degradation products (DPs) were formed under oxidative and photolytic degradation conditions. The chromatographic separation of drug substance and its DPs was achieved on an Acquity HSS T3 column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μ) using 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as the mobile phase in gradient mode using a UHPLC-DAD system. The DPs were identified and characterized by high-resolution LC/MS and LC/MS/MS in ESI positive mode. Two DPs (DP-I and DP-II) were formed when SRT was exposed to oxidative degradation conditions. Three DPs formed (DP III-V) when exposed to photolytic degradation conditions. All the five major DPs were isolated using Preparative HPLC. The structures of major DPs formed were further confirmed using NMR technique (1D and 2D). The proposed mechanism for the formation of the SRT DPs via the photolytic/oxidative stress degradation pathway are discussed and outlined.

Capillary electrophoresis for the analysis of antidepressant drugs: A review

Depression is a common mental disorder that may lead to major mental health problems, and antidepressant drugs have been used as a treatment of choice to mitigate symptoms of major depressive disorders by ameliorating the chemical imbalances of neurotransmitters in brain. Since abusing antidepressant drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressant drugs can cause severe adverse effects, continuous toxicological monitoring of the parent compounds as well as their metabolites using numerous analytical methods appears pertinent. Among them, capillary electrophoresis has been popularly utilized since the method has a lot of advantages viz. using small amounts of sample and solvents, ease of operation, and rapid analysis. This review paper brings a survey of more than 30 papers on capillary electrophoresis of antidepressant drugs published approximately from 1999 until 2018. It focuses on the reported capillary electrophoresis techniques and their applications and challenges for determining antidepressant drugs and their metabolites. It is organized according to the commonly used capillary zone electrophoresis method, followed by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis and micellar electrokinetic chromatography, with details on breakthrough findings. Where available, information is given about the background electrolyte used, detector utilized, and sensitivity obtained.

A Novel Liquid-Liquid Extraction for the Determination of Sertraline in Tap Water and Waste Water at Trace Levels by GC-MS

A simple, green and fast analytical method was developed for the determination of sertraline in tap and waste water samples at trace levels by using supportive liquid-liquid extraction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Different parameters affecting extraction efficiency such as types and volumes of extraction and supporter solvents, extraction period, salt type and amount were optimized to get lower detection limits. Ethyl acetate was selected as optimum extraction solvent. In order to improve the precision, anthracene-D10 was used as an internal standard. The calibration plot of sertraline was linear from 1.0 to 1000 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.999. The limit of detection value under the optimum conditions was found to be 0.43 ng/mL. In real sample measurements, spiking experiments were performed to check the reliability of the method for these matrices. The spiking experiments yielded satisfactory recoveries of 91.19 ± 2.48%, 90.48 ± 5.19% and 95.46 ± 6.56% for 100, 250 and 500 ng/mL sertraline for tap water, and 85.80 ± 2.15% and 92.43 ± 4.02% for 250 and 500 ng/mL sertraline for waste water.

Rapid solid-phase extraction coupled with GC-MS method for the determination of venlafaxine in rat plasma: Application to the drug-drug pharmacokinetic interaction study of venlafaxine combined with fluoxetine

A rapid and sensitive gas chromatography with mass spectrometry method for the determination of venlafaxine in rat plasma has been developed and applied to a drug-drug interaction study of fluoxetine on pharmacokinetics of venlafaxine in rats. Rat plasma was spiked with 2% aqueous ammonia before subjected to preactivated C₁₈ solid-phase extraction columns and eluted with methanol. No endogenous interferences were observed under optimal condition. The calibration curve was linear (R²  = 0.9994) in the range of 10-1000 ng/mL. The quantification limit of venlafaxine in rat plasma was 10 ng/mL. The accuracy was in the range of 85-110%, and the extraction recovery was no less than 50%. Both the intra- and interday precision were 5.0-10.7%. The concentration-time curve showed that plasma concentrations of the coadministration group (group B) were higher than that of single dose group (group A). Both values of C_max (0.069 mg/L) and AUC_0→∞ (0.291 mg h/L) in group B were statistically greater than that of C_max (0.046 mg/L) and AUC_0→∞ (0.181 mg·h/L) in group A (P < 0.05). The results indicated that a significant effect of fluoxetine was shown on the pharmacokinetics of venlafaxine, suggesting that drug-drug interactions are of concern for the treatment of depression with the combined use of venlafaxine and fluoxetine.

Determination of clozapine, and five antidepressants in human plasma, serum and whole blood by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry: A simple tool for clinical and postmortem toxicological analysis

In this study, we describe a simple and rapid method for the determination of the antipsychotic drug clozapine and five commonly co-administered antidepressants - bupropion, mirtazapine, sertraline, clomipramine and citalopram - in serum, plasma and whole blood. Sample preparation includes solid phase extraction of analytes and determination of drug concentrations by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry without any derivatization steps. The method was fully validated according to international criteria and can be successfully applied for routine analyses. Correlation coefficients of calibration curves for the tested drugs in the three specimens were in the range 0.9977-0.9999. Intra-day and inter-day precisions ranged from 0.81-7.85% and 3.60-12.91% respectively for the studied analytes and matrices. Recoveries were satisfactory for different concentrations of each drug in each specimen allowing accurate determinations in the range from sub-therapeutic to toxic levels. The presented method shows acceptable sensitivity, linearity in wide concentration ranges (sub-therapeutic, therapeutic, supra-therapeutic/toxic levels), it is simple and rapid and it is applicable for qualitative and quantitative routine toxicological analyses of clinical and postmortem cases.

GC-MS method for determination and pharmacokinetic study of four phenylpropanoids in rat plasma after oral administration of the essential oil of Acorus tatarinowii Schott rhizomes

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Acorus tatarinowii Schott (AT), belong to the family Araceae, is perennial herbaceous plant mainly present in China, Japan and India. The rhizomes of AT have been used as a famous traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of central nervous system related diseases.

AIM OF THE STUDY

A selective, accurate and sensitive method using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) for the simultaneous determination and pharmacokinetic study of β-asarone, α-asarone, elemicin and cis-methyl isoeugenol in rat plasma was developed and validated.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The GC-MS system was operated under selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The samples were prepared by protein precipitation with acetonitrile after being spiked with an internal standard (1-naphthol). The GC separation was achieved on a DB-1701 column (60 m × 0.25 mm ID, and 0.25 µm film thickness).

RESULTS

The current GC/MS assay was validated for linearity, intra-day and inter-day precisions, accuracy, extraction recovery and stability. The analyte calibration curves were linear over a wide concentration range and the lowest limit of quantifications (LLOQ) were 5.53 ng/mL (β-asarone), 6.50 ng/mL (α-asarone), 3.10 ng/mL (elemicin) and 7.60 ng/mL (cis-methyl isoeugenol). After oral administration 0.9 g /Kg of AT rhizomes, the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) was 2508.6±498.7 ng/mL for β-asarone, 257.5±37.1 ng/mL for α -asarone, 345.5±33.4 ng/mL for elemicin and 452.7±59.1 ng/mL for cis-methyl isoeugenol, respectively. The time to reach the maximum plasma concentration (Tmax) was 1.42±0.18 h for β-asarone, 1.58±0.19 h for α -asarone, 1.67±0.24 h for elemicin and 1.75±0.38 h for cis-methyl isoeugenol, respectively.

CONCLUSION

This paper described a simple, sensitive and validated GC-MS method for simultaneous determination of four phenylpropanoids in rat plasma after oral administration of the essential oil of AT rhizomes and investigated on their pharmacokinetics studies as well.

A fully validated method for the simultaneous determination of 11 antidepressant drugs in whole blood by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Antidepressant drugs are widely used for the treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders and as a result they are involved in numerous clinical and forensic cases. The aim of this study was the development, optimization and validation of a simple, specific and sensitive GC/MS method for the simultaneous determination of 11 antidepressant drugs and 4 of their metabolites (amitriptyline, citalopram, clomipramine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, maprotiline, desmethyl-maprotiline, mirtazapine, desmethyl-mirtazapine, nortriptyline, paroxetine, sertraline, desmethyl-sertraline, venlafaxine and desmethyl-venlafaxine) in whole blood. The combination of solid-phase extraction with derivatization using heptafluorobutyric anhydride efficiently reduced matrix effect and improved sensitivity of the method. In this assay, protriptyline was used as internal standard. Absolute recovery values for all analytes were ranged from 79.2 to 102.6%. LODs and LOQs were found to be between 0.30-1.50 μg/L and 1.00-5.00 μg/L, respectively. The calibration curves were linear (R(2)≥0.990) within the range of 5.00-1000 μg/L for all analytes. Accuracy expressed as the % E(r) was found to be between -12.3 and 12.2%. Precision expressed as the % RSD was found to be less than 11.7% for all antidepressants. The developed method proved to be suitable for routine work and it was used to successfully analyze more than 2500 clinical and forensic blood samples.