title: Determination of the enantiomers of thioridazine, thioridazine 2-sulfone, and of the isomeric pairs of thioridazine 2-sulfoxide and thioridazine 5-sulfoxide in human plasma.
abstract: Thioridazine is a commonly prescribed phenothiazine drug administered as a racemate and it is believed that its antipsychotic effect is mainly associated with (R)-thioridazine. A method based on high-performance liquid chromatography has been developed for the determination of the enantiomers of thioridazine and thioridazine 2-sulfone (THD 2-SO2 or sulforidazine) and of the enantiomers of the diastereoisomeric pairs of thioridazine 2-sulfoxide (THD 2-SO or mesoridazine) and thioridazine 5-sulfoxide (THD 5-SO) in the plasma of thioridazine-treated patients. The method involves sequential achiral and chiral HPLC. The limits of quantitation for total (R) + (S) concentrations were found to be 15 ng/ml for thioridazine and 5 ng/ml for its metabolites. The limits for the determination of the (R)/(S) ratios were found to be 60 ng/ml for racemic THD and 10 ng/ml for racemic THD 2-SO, THD 2-SO2, THD 5-SO (FE) and THD 5-SO (SE). The method has been used to determine the concentrations of the enantiomers of thioridazine and of its metabolites in the plasma of a patient treated with 100 mg of racemic thioridazine hydrochloride per os per day for 14 days. The results show a high enantioselectivity in the metabolism of this drug: the (R)/(S) ratios for THD, THD 2-SO (FE), THD 2-SO (SE), THD 2-SO2, THD 5-SO (FE) and THD 5-SO (SE) were found to be 3.90, 1.22, 6.10, 4.10, 0.09 and 28.0, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Département Universitaire de Psychiatrie Adulte (DUPA), Prilly-Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Eap
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Koeb
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baumann
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000097:blood*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D006801:Humans; D007536:Isomerism; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013881:Thioridazine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D013881:Thioridazine