Abstract
Background: Asenapine is a new antipsychotic drug used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Paroxetine and fluvoxamine are second generation antidepressant drugs.
Objective: Herein we have developed a simple and rapid UHPLC-DAD method to determine asenapine, fluvoxamine and paroxetine. The methodology was applied to the analysis of human biofluids, namely blood serum, urine and cerebrospinal fluid.
Method: The analytes of interest were separated on an Inertsil C8, (250 x 4.0 mm) 5 µm, analytical column, using mobile phase consisted of acetate buffer (0.2 M, pH=4.5), methanol and acetonitrile (60:10:30 % v/v). Isocratic elution was performed at a flow rate of 1.7 mL/min. Photodiode array detection was applied at 231 nm for asenapine, 294 nm for paroxetine and 251 nm for fluvoxamine. Sulfadimethoxine (2.5 ng/µL) was chosen as the internal standard. The method was validated in terms of linearity, selectivity, accuracy, precision and stability.
Results: Limits of detection and quantitation were 0.03 ng/µL, and 0.10 ng/µL respectively, using the S/N= 3.3 and S/N= 10 criteria.
Conclusion: The developed method is consistent and can be used as a useful analytical tool to monitor the three drugs in serum, urine and cerebrospinal fluid, in patients under treatment.
Keywords: Asenapine, biofluids, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, cerebrospinal fluid, UHPLC.
Graphical Abstract
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