Rapid and Reproducible Dibutylation Derivatization Coupled with Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for the Simultaneous Determination of Dopamine, Norepinephrine and 5-Hydroxytryptamine in Rat Brain Microdialysates

◢ International Journal of Analytical Mass Spectrometry and Chromatography, 2018, DOI: 10.4236/ijamsc.2018.62002

Jinlian Lu, Weimin Hu, Weiqun Cao, Sitan Xie, Zhiyu Li, Yi Tao*, Xin Zhang

Bioanalytical Services Unit, Lab-Testing Division, WuXi AppTec Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China.

Abstract

A rapid and reproducible method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of dopamine (DA), norepinephrine (NE), and serotonin (5-HT) in rat brain microdialysates. Derivatization was processed through reductive amination with butyraldehyde and sodium cyanoborohydride at 60℃ for 80 min incubation. Dibutylated monoamine neurotransmitters (MANTs) were directly analyzed with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The chromatographic run time was shorter (2.1 min/sample) than previous studies ^{[15] [18] [20]}. Good linearity (R2 > 0.99) was obtained for DA, NE and 5-HT in the range of 25 - 5000 pg/mL, 5 - 1000 pg/mL and 2.5 - 500 pg/mL, respectively. Acceptable precision (CV, 8.5% - 13.4%) as well as accuracy (recovery, 94.1% - 106.8%) could be acquired by analysis of six batches of quality control samples (QCs) at four different concentrations, which demonstrated the reliability and reproducibility of current method. This method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of DA, NE and 5-HT in rat brain microdialysates, where basal levels as well as elevated levels after dosing with amphetamine (AMPH) were quantified for all three MANTs. This study provides a simple and rapid way to analyze MANTs in the biofluid in the future.

Keywords

Derivatization, Microdialysis, Monoamine Neurotransmitters, LC-MS/MS