title: Stereospecific determination of citalopram and desmethylcitalopram by capillary electrophoresis and liquid-phase microextraction.
abstract: A chiral capillary electrophoresis (CE) system allowing simultaneous enantiomer determination of citalopram (CIT) and its pharmacologically active metabolite desmethylcitalopram (DCIT) was developed. Excellent chiral separation was obtained using 1% sulfated-beta-cyclodextrin (S-beta-CD) as chiral selector in combination with 12% ACN in 25 mM phosphate pH 2.5. Samples were prepared by liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) based on a rodlike porous polypropylene hollow fibre. CIT and DCIT were extracted from 1 ml plasma made alkaline with NaOH, into dodecyl acetate impregnated in the pores of a hollow fibre, and into 20 mM phosphate pH 2.75, inside the hollow fibre. The acceptor solution was directly compatible with the CE system. Efficient sample clean-up was seen, and the recoveries were 46 and 29% for the enantiomers of CIT and DCIT, respectively, corresponding to 31 and 19 times enrichment. The limit of quantification (S/N=10) was <11.2 ng/ml, intra-day precision was <12.8% RSD, and inter-day precision was <14.5% RSD, for all enantiomers. The validated method was successfully applied to simultaneous determination of enantiomer concentrations of CIT and DCIT in plasma samples from nine patients treated with racemic citalopram. The results confirm LPME-CE as a suitable and promising tool for enantiomeric determination of chiral drugs and metabolites in biological matrices.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1068 Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway. solveig.andersen@diakonsyk.no
authors.forename: Solveig
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Trine Grønhaug
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Halvorsen
authors.forename: Stig
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pedersen-Bjergaard
authors.forename: Knut E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tanum
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Refsum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D015283:Citalopram / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis*; D003863:Depression / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000032:analysis*; D013237:Stereoisomerism
chemical_list: D015283:Citalopram; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; C046304:desmethylcitalopram