Sonochemical synthesis of iron-graphene oxide/honeycomb-like ZnO ternary nanohybrids for sensitive electrochemical detection of antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine.

We report a novel electrochemical sensor for the sensitive and selective determination of the antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine (CPZ) based on the iron (Fe) nanoparticles-loaded graphene oxide (GO-Fe)/three dimensional (3D) honeycomb-like zinc oxide (ZnO) nanohybrid modified screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE). The 3D hierarchical honeycomb-like ZnO was synthesized using a novel aqueous hydrothermal method and the GO-Fe/ZnO nanohybrid was prepared based on an inexpensive and fast sonochemical method using a high-intensity ultrasonic bath (Delta DC200H, 200 W, 40 KHz). Characterizations including scanning electron microscopy, elemental mapping, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were carried out as part of this work. The electrocatalytic oxidation behavior of CPZ at various electrodes was investigated using the cyclic voltammetry technique, through which the GO-Fe/ZnO modified SPCE was identified as the best performing electrode. The quantitative determination of CPZ was then performed using the differential pulse voltammetry technique. The as-prepared GO-Fe/ZnO/SPCE sensor exhibited a quick and sensitive response towards the oxidation of CPZ with linear concentration ranges from 0.02 to 172.74 µM and 222.48 to 1047.74 µM. The modified SPCE sensor displayed a low detection limit (LOD) of 0.02 µM and a high sensitivity of 7.56 µA µM-1 cm-2. The proposed sensor also showed remarkable operational and storage stability, reproducibility, and repeatability. Furthermore, the practicability of the GO-Fe/ZnO/SPCE sensor has been verified with real sample analysis using commercial antipsychotic CPZ tablets and human urine samples, and adequate recovery has been achieved.

Electrochemically controlled fiber-in-tube solid-phase microextraction method for the determination of trace amounts of antipsychotic drugs in biological samples.

In this study, a novel 'fiber-in-tube' configuration was applied to electrochemically controlled fiber-in-tube solid-phase microextraction of antipsychotic drugs (perphenazine and chlorpromazine) from biological samples. To prepare an electrochemically controlled fiber-in-tube solid-phase microextraction column, first eight stainless-steel wires were placed into the stainless-steel column. Then, a nanostructured Cu-Cr-Al ternary layered double hydroxide/polythiophene coating was prepared on the inner surface of the stainless-steel tube and on the surfaces of the stainless-steel wires by a facile in situ electrodeposition method. The nanostructured coating exhibited enhanced long lifetime, good mechanical stability, high porosity, and large specific surface area compared with polythiophene and Cu-Cr-Al layered double hydroxide coatings. Under the optimal conditions, the limits of detection were in the range of 0.07-0.8 µg/L. This method showed good linearity for perphenazine and chlorpromazine in the ranges of 0.3-300 and 0.2-300 µg/L, respectively, with coefficients of determination more than 0.9982. The inter- and intra-assay precisions (RSD%, n = 3) were in the ranges of 3.0-5.1 and 2.5-4.5% at three concentration levels of 5, 25 and 50 µg/L, respectively. Finally, the method was applied for the analysis of the drugs in human urine and plasma samples.

One-step sonochemical synthesis of 1D ß-stannous tungstate nanorods: An efficient and excellent electrocatalyst for the selective electrochemical detection of antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine.

In the modern world, the contamination of ecosystem by human and veterinary pharmaceutical drugs through the metabolic excretion, improper disposal/industrial waste has been subjected to a hot issue. Therefore, exploitation of exclusive structured material and reliable technique is a necessary task to the precise detection of drugs. With this regards, we made an effort for the fabrication of novel one-dimensional (1D) stannous tungstate nanorods (ß-SnW NRs) via simple sonochemical approach and used as an electrochemical sensor for the detection of antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine (CPZ) for the first time. The crystallographic structure, surface topology, elemental compositions and their distributions and ionic states were enquired by different spectroscopic techniques such as XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDS, elemental mapping and XPS analysis. The developed ß-SnW NRs/GCE sensor exhibits a rapid and sensitive electrochemical response towards CPZ sensing with wide linear response range (0.01-457 µM), high sensitivity (2.487 µA µM-1 cm-2), low detection limit (0.003 µM) and excellent selectivity. Besides, the as-proposed electrochemical sensor was successfully applied to real sample analysis in commercial CPZ drug and biological fluids and the acquired recovery results are quite satisfactory. The proposed sonochemical method for the preparation of ß-SnW NRs is low cost, very simple, fast and efficient for sensor applications.

Rapid determination of some psychotropic drugs in complex matrices by tandem dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography.

Simple and rapid determinations of some psychotropic drugs in some pharmaceutical wastewater and human plasma samples were successfully accomplished via the tandem dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction combined with high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (TDLLME-HPLC-UV). TDLLME of the three psychotropic drugs clozapine, chlorpromazine, and thioridazine was easily performed through two consecutive dispersive liquid-liquid microextractions. By performing this convenient method, proper sample preconcentrations and clean-ups were achieved in just about 7min. In order to achieve the best extraction efficiency, the effective parameters involved were optimized. The optimal experimental conditions consisted of 100µL of CCl4 (as the extraction organic solvent), and the pH values of 13 and 2 for the donor and acceptor phases, respectively. Under these optimum experimental conditions, the proposed TDLLME-HPLC-UV technique provided a good linearity in the range of 5-3000ngmL-1 for the three psychotropic drugs with the correlation of determinations (R2s) higher than 0.996. The limits of quantification (LOQs) and limits of detection (LODs) obtained were 5.0ngmL-1 and 1.0-1.5ngmL-1, respectively. Also the proper enrichment factors (EFs) of 96, 99, and 88 for clozapine, chlorpromazine, and thioridazine, respectively, and good extraction repeatabilities (relative standard deviations below 9.3%, n=5) were obtained.

Measurement analysis of two radials with a common-origin point and its application.

In spectral analysis, a chemical component is usually identified by its characteristic spectra, especially the peaks. If two components have overlapping spectral peaks, they are generally considered to be indiscriminate in current analytical chemistry textbooks and related literature. However, if the intensities of the overlapping major spectral peaks are additive, and have different rates of change with respect to variations in the concentration of the individual components, a simple method, named the 'common-origin ray', for the simultaneous determination of two components can be established. Several case studies highlighting its applications are presented.

A sensitive capillary LC-UV method for the simultaneous analysis of olanzapine, chlorpromazine and their FMO-mediated N-oxidation products in brain microdialysates.

A specific and sensitive capillary liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (cap-LC-UV) method in combination with a micro-extraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) sample clean-up procedure has been developed and validated for the simultaneous analysis of chlorpromazine, olanzapine and their flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) mediated N-oxides in rat brain microdialysates. Chromatographic separation was obtained on an Acclaim Pepmap RP C18 column with an ID of 300µm. An injection volume of 20µL was used to inject the largely aqueous samples and was shown to have no influence on the obtained peak shape of the compounds of interest. Optimal conditions for MEPS extraction were obtained on a mixed-mode M1 (80% C8, 20% SCX) cartridge after diluting microdialysate samples with phosphate buffer pH 2.5 (1:3 v/v). The method was validated and lower limits of quantification (LLOQ) were determined at 0.5nM for all compounds. Linearity was demonstrated between the LLOQ and 1µM for all compounds (R2>0.995). MEPS recoveries were between 92% and 98%, with intra- and interday variabilities below 15%. The applicability of the developed method was successfully demonstrated by analysing rat brain microdialysates. The capillary LC-UV method in combination with MEPS sample treatment provides a simple, sensitive method to quantify all compounds of interest in 45min and can be applied for routine therapeutic monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies of olanzapine, chlorpromazine and their respective N-oxides.

Simultaneous determination of three banned psychiatric drugs in pig feed and tissue using solid-phase reactor on-line oxidizing and HPLC-fluorescence detection.

The banned addition of psychiatric drugs such as phenothiazines to animal feed and foodstuffs increases the risk of human organ lesion. Phenothiazines usually exhibit weak native fluorescence and can be oxidized to strongly fluorescent compounds. In this study, a novel, sensitive and convenient method of HPLC-fluorescence detection based on post-column on-line oxidizing with lead dioxide solid-phase reactor has been developed for simultaneous determination of three banned psychotropic drugs, promethazine, chlorpromazine and thioridazine. Three compounds were successfully separated on an Agilent TC-C18 column with mobile phase of acetonitrile (A) and water (B), both containing 0.5% (v/v) formic acid. A gradient elution was programmed and fluorimetric detection was performed at λex /λem of 332/373 nm for promethazine, 340/380 nm for chlorpromazine and 352/432 nm for thioridazine. The calibration graphs gave good linearity over the concentration ranges of 30.0-4976.4 µg/L for promethazine, 2.0-2153.2 µg/L for chlorpromazine, and 15.0-3088.0 µg/L for thioridazine, and correlation coefficients (r) were ≥0.995. The method was applied to the determination of phenothiazines in pig feed and pig tissue, and the average spiked recoveries were in the range 69.1-115.4%.

Forensic toxicological analyses of drugs in tissues in formalin solutions and in fixatives.

Forensic toxicological drug analyses of human specimens are usually performed immediately after autopsy or on frozen preserved tissues. Occasionally, cases require analysis of drugs from tissues fixed in formalin solution. To improve the estimation of the level of drug in tissues following formalin fixation, we studied drug concentrations in human tissues, liver and kidney, that were collected from a drug-positive autopsy case. Parts of tissues were preserved in formalin solution for 1, 3, 6 and 13 months. Tissues obtained before and after preservation, along with tissue-exposed fixatives, were assayed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; all of the samples were assayed for the presence of drugs and changes in the drug concentrations both before and after preservation in formalin. Concentrations of assayed drugs decreased upon fixation in formalin; levels of these drugs did not necessarily show further decreases during subsequent storage in fixative, up to 13 months. Distinct trends in drug levels were found in liver and kidney. In liver, the levels of chlorpromazine, levomepromazine, and promethazine decreased to 23-39% at 1 month after preservation; all 3 of these drugs were detected at all tested time points of preservation. Bromazepam was not detected at 13 months after preservation. Milnacipran was the most unstable after preservation in formalin solution among all of the assayed drugs. In kidney, all assayed drugs exhibited reduced stability during preservation compared to levels in liver. Methamphetamine and methylenedioxymethamphetamine were not detected in any time points of tissues. The proportions of the drugs that remained within the tissues differed between liver and kidney. Also, S-oxide compounds of chlorpromazine and levomepromazine, which were not observed before preservation, were detected in fixed liver tissues and their fixatives at 3, 6 and 13 months of preservation. These results suggest that analyses in formalin-fixed tissues need to include analysis of various organ-tissues and their fixatives at multiple time points for the duration of preservation. These analyses should include detection of chemical degradation/denaturation products, such as S-oxides of chlorpromazine and levomepromazine.

Comparison of information-dependent acquisition, SWATH, and MS(All) techniques in metabolite identification study employing ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis is a powerful and essential tool for metabolite identification in drug discovery and development. An MS(2) (or tandem, MS/MS) mass spectrum is acquired from the fragmentation of a precursor ion by multiple methods including information-dependent acquisition (IDA), SWATH (sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment-ion spectra), and MS(All) (also called MS(E)) techniques. We compared these three techniques in their capabilities to produce comprehensive MS(2) data by assessing both metabolite MS(2) acquisition hit rate and the quality of MS(2) spectra. Rat liver microsomal incubations from eight test compounds were analyzed with four methods (IDA, MMDF (multiple mass defect filters)-IDA, SWATH, or MS(All)) using an ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-qudrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF MS) platform. A combined total of 227 drug-related materials (DRM) were detected from all eight test article incubations, and among those, 5% and 4% of DRM were not triggered for MS(2) acquisition with IDA and MMDF-IDA methods, respectively. When the same samples were spiked to an equal volume of blank rat urine (urine sample), the DRM without MS(2) acquisition increased to 29% and 18%, correspondingly. In contrast, 100% of DRM in both matrixes were subjected to MS(2) acquisition with either the SWATH or MS(All) method. However, the quality of the acquired MS(2) spectra decreased in the order of IDA, SWATH, and MS(All) methods. An average of 10, 9, and 6 out of 10 most abundant ions in MS(2) spectra were the real product ions of DRM detected in microsomal samples from IDA, SWATH, and MS(All) methods, respectively. The corresponding numbers declined to 9, 6, and 3 in the urine samples. Overall, IDA-based methods acquired qualitatively better MS(2) spectra but with a lower MS(2) acquisition hit rate than the other two methods. SWATH outperformed the MS(All) method given its better quality of MS(2) spectra with an identical MS(2) acquisition hit rate.

Simultaneous determination of 5 psychotropic drugs of various types in an autopsy case of acute multiple drug poisoning.

We attempted the simultaneous determination of 5 drugs, mirtazapine, sertraline, chlorpromazine, amoxapine and zolpidem, detected in a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry screening test in an autopsy case. The solid-phase extraction of the analytes from biological samples was achieved using Oasis(®)HLB cartridges (Waters, Milford, MA, USA). Gas chromatography was performed on a HP-5MS fused silica capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 µm film thickness, Agilent Technologies). The mass spectrometer was operated with an electron energy of 70 eV in electron impact mode. The qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed in full-scan mode and the selected ion monitoring mode, respectively. The total ion chromatogram showed good separation of these drugs. Linear graphs were obtained with good correlation coefficients for these drugs from 0.001 to 2.0 µg/mL (r(2)=0.9909-0.9986) using imipramine-d6 as an internal standard. The recoveries of these drugs were found to be 62.8-88.0% in spiked whole blood. Mirtazapine, sertraline, chlorpromazine, amoxapine and zolpidem were found in post-mortem samples of the deceased at concentrations of 2.67, 0.07, 0.25, 0.32 and 0.68 µg/mL, respectively. The concentration of mirtazapine was within the lethal level and those of amoxapine and zolpidem were within the toxic level. We diagnosed that the cause of death was acute multiple drug poisoning. The simple and practical procedure used in this study is useful for the simultaneous determination of psychotropic drugs of various types in post-mortem biological samples.

Highly sensitive detection of residual chlorpromazine hydrochloride with solid substrate room temperature phosphorimetry.

Under the condition of 60 °C and 20 min at pH 6.12, chlorpromazine hydrochloride (CPZ) could react with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) to produce FITC-CPZ, which increased the π-electron density (δ) of carbon atom in FITC conjugated system and the room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) intensity of FITC. Thus, a new solid substrate room temperature phosphorimetry (SSRTP) for the determination of residual CPZ was established. The regression equation of working curve was ΔI (p) = 4.254 + 7.906 m(CPZ) (ag spot(-1)) with the correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9990 in the range of 0.036-9.6 ag spot(-1) (corresponding concentration: 0.090-24 fg ml(-1), sample volume: 0.40 µl spot(-1)), and the detection limit (LD) was 0.018 ag spot(-1) (corresponding concentration: 4.5 × 10(-17) g ml(-1)). This method with wide linear range and high sensitivity was not only used to diagnose human disease based on the correlation between the residual quantity and lethal dose of CPZ in human serum, but also used to determine residual CPZ in biological samples with the results consisting with those obtained by gas chromatography (GC), showing good accuracy. The constituent of FITC-CPZ was analyzed by GC-MS (mass spectrometry) and the reaction mechanism of SSRTP for the determination of trace CPZ was also discussed.

[Simultaneous determination of chlorpromazine and promethazine and their main metabolites by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemiluminescence].

Based on the phenomenon that each of chlorpromazine (CPZ), promethazine (PMZ), chlorpromazine sulfoxide (CPZSO) and promethazine sulfoxide (PMZSO) could enhance the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) intensity of tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium, a novel and sensitive method was proposed for the simultaneous determination of CPZ, PMZ and their main metabolites using capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with ECL detection. The influences of several experimental parameters were explored. The optimum experimental conditions were as follows: detection potential of 1. 20 V (Ag/AgCl), 40 mmol/L of phosphate buffer solution (pH 6.5) containing 5 mmol/L tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium in ECL detection cell, running buffer solution of 18 mmol/L (pH 4.8), sample injection of 8 s at 11 kV, and separation voltage of 13.5 kV. The detection limits (3sigma) of this method were 8.3 x 10(-7) g/L for CPZ, 7.2 x 10(-6) g/L for PMZ, 1.9 x 10(-5) g/L for CPZSO and 3.7 x 10(-6) g/L for PMZSO. The linear ranges of ECL intensity versus mass concentration of medicaments were 7. 1 x 10(-6) - 6. 3 x 10(-3) g/L for CPZ, 7.5 x 10(-5) - 4.6 x 10(-3) g/L for PMZ, 9.7 x 10(-5) - 3.6 x 10(-3) g/L for CPZSO and 8.1 x 10(-5) - 7.7 x 10(-3) g/L for PMZSO. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the four target compounds were not more than 3% for ECL intensity and 1% for migration time. This method has the merits of simplicity, speediness, sensitivity, small sample injection, and free from interference. This method was successfully utilized to directly and simultaneously detect CPZ, PMZ, CPZSO and PMZSO in urine samples of pet dogs.

Development of a negligible depletion-solid phase microextraction method to determine the free concentration of chlorpromazine in aqueous samples containing albumin.

The addition of proteins to in vitro systems influences the free concentration of the test compound in the medium. The objective of this study was to set up a negligible depletion-solid phase microextraction method, coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography (nd-SPME-HPLC) to measure the free concentration of chlorpromazine (CPZ) in medium containing albumin. The nd-SPME method was optimized for coating thickness (polyacrylate coating) and exposure time, and potential effects from the addition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were studied. It was shown that the addition of albumin did not cause fouling or influenced the uptake kinetics of CPZ into the fiber. At a realistic in vivo albumin concentration of 40 g/L of albumin, 94% of CPZ was protein bound. This is in line with findings in vivo, reporting a protein binding for CPZ of 92-99%. The nd-SPME-HPLC method described in this study can be used to measure the free concentration of chlorpromazine in medium containing proteins. These findings can be used to correct in vitro data for protein binding of chlorpromazine and this information is essential for the extrapolation to in vivo data.

Preparation of a monoclonal antibody and development of an indirect competitive ELISA for the detection of chlorpromazine residue in chicken and swine liver.

BACKGROUND: Chlorpromazine is a typical antipsychotic drug used to make food-producing animals calm and promote growth as feed additives. Accumulation of chlorpromazine in animal bodies would cause side effects in the circulatory and nervous systems, and have adverse effects on blood cells, the skin and the eye. To detect the chlorpromazine residue in food producing animals, an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed based on preparation of an anti-chlorpromazine monoclonal antibody. RESULTS: The antibody generated from immunogen of cationic bovine serum albumin (cBSA) coupled with chlorpromazine showed high sensitivity toward chlorpromazine with an IC(50) value of 0.73 ppb. The ELISA method was applied to detect swine liver and chicken samples spiked by chlorpromazine and satisfactory results were obtained. The recovery rates in chicken and swine liver were in the range of 88-95% and 86-95%, respectively; the intra-assay coefficients of variation were both < 15.3% and < 13.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: An indirect competitive ELISA method based on a monoclonal antibody towards chlorpromazine with excellent sensitivity and specificity has been successfully developed. The immunoassay provided in this study was a hopeful alternative to chromatography spectrometry for regulatory analysis of chlorpromazine residue in food-producing animals.

Study on the resonance nonlinear scattering spectra of the interactions of promethazine hydrochloride and chlorpromazine hydrochloride with 12-tungstophosphoric acid and their analytical applications.

In pH 1.0 HCl medium, 12-tungstophosphoric acid (TP) reacted with promethazine hydrochloride (PMZ) and chlorpromazine hydrochloride (CPZ) to form ion-association complexes, which led to a great enhancement of the resonance nonlinear scattering such as second-order scattering (SOS) and frequency doubling scattering (FDS). Their maximum SOS and FDS peaks were located at 585 nm (TP-PMZ), 584 nm (TP-CPZ) and 388 nm (TP-PMZ), 329 nm (TP-CPZ), respectively. These results provided some indication for the determination of PMZ and CPZ by SOS and FDS methods. The linear range of TP-PMZ and TP-CPZ systems were 0.0069-2.5 microg mL(-1), 0.102-5.0 microg mL(-1) (SOS) and 0.079-6.0 microg mL(-1), 0.0133-5.0 microg mL(-1) (FDS), respectively. The detection limits (3sigma) of PMZ and CPZ were 2.08 ng mL(-1), 3.07 ng mL(-1) (SOS) and 2.22 ng mL(-1), 3.98 ng mL(-1) (FDS), respectively. In this work, the optimum reaction conditions, the influences of coexisting substances and ionic strength and analytical application have been investigated. The methods have been successfully applied to the determination of PMZ and CPZ in tablets. In addition, the composition of ion-association complexes and the reaction mechanism are also discussed.

Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose films for prolonged delivery of the antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop transdermal films based on hydroxypropylmethylcellulose with the purpose of improving transdermal permeation of chlorpromazine hydrochloride, an antipsychotic drug used to alleviate the symptoms and signs of psychosis. METHODS: Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose films were prepared and evaluated for their drug content, film thickness, residual water content and bioadhesive properties. In-vitro permeation experiments were performed in the absence and in the presence of permeation enhancers (oleic acid, polysorbate 80, or both) with the purpose of improving drug availability. Other formulative parameters, such as drug and plasticizer concentration and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose type, were investigated. KEY FINDINGS: Both oleic acid and polysorbate 80 had significant effect on drug permeation with respect to the control formulation. In particular films containing a mixture of oleic acid and polysorbate 80 provided the best enhancement activity for chlorpromazine. Moreover, a decrease in propylene glycol or chlorpromazine content or an increase of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose viscosity provided lower cumulative amounts of drug permeated. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained confirm that chlorpromazine permeation can be easily modulated by varying the composition of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose-based films. These formulations could serve as candidates for transdermal delivery of antipsychotic drugs.

An integrated dataset for in silico drug discovery.

Drug development is expensive and prone to failure. It is potentially much less risky and expensive to reuse a drug developed for one condition for treating a second disease, than it is to develop an entirely new compound. Systematic approaches to drug repositioning are needed to increase throughput and find candidates more reliably. Here we address this need with an integrated systems biology dataset, developed using the Ondex data integration platform, for the in silico discovery of new drug repositioning candidates. We demonstrate that the information in this dataset allows known repositioning examples to be discovered. We also propose a means of automating the search for new treatment indications of existing compounds.

Potentiating effect of Mentha arvensis and chlorpromazine in the resistance to aminoglycosides of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

BACKGROUND: This is the first report testing the antibiotic resistance-modifying activity of Mentha arvensis against MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study an ethanol extract of Mentha arvensis L. and chlorpromazine were tested for their antimicrobial activity alone or in combination with conventional antibiotics against MRSA strains. RESULTS: A potentiating effect of this extract on gentamicin, kanamycin and neomycin was demonstrated. Similarly, a potentiating effect of chlorpromazine on the same aminoglycosides was observed, indicating the involvement of an efflux system in the resistance to these antibiotics. CONCLUSION: It is therefore suggested that extracts from M. arvensis could be used as a source of plant-derived natural products with resistance-modifying activity, such as in the case of aminoglycosides, constituting a new weapon against bacterial resistance to antibiotics, as with chlorpromazine.

A novel technique for NACE coupled with simultaneous electrochemiluminescence and electrochemical detection for fast analysis of tertiary amines.

A simultaneous electrochemiluminescence (ECL) and electrochemical (EC) detection scheme for NACE was presented for fast analysis of tertiary amines. Both ECL and EC signals were generated at the same Pt electrode. Triethylamine (TEA), tripropylamine (TPrA), chlorpromazine, promethazine, and dioxopromethazine (DPZ) were selected to validate NACE-ECL/EC dual detection strategy. The linear ranges for TEA and TPrA were 0.01-500 and 0.01-10 microM with the detection limits of 8.0 and 5.0 nM (S/N=3), respectively. The RSDs (n=6) of the migration time and the ECL intensity for 1 microM TEA and 0.5 microM TPrA were 0.1 and 2.8%, and 0.2 and 1.8% with theoretical plate numbers of 180,000 and 700,000 per meter, respectively. These two analytes could be separated within 92 s and the Pt electrode did not need reactivation during the experiments. Chlorpromazine, promethazine, and DPZ could be well separated by NACE. The proposed method was also demonstrated for fast determination of DPZ in human urine with simple sample preparation. The results indicated that NACE-ECL/EC had the advantages of simple and fast analysis with more information, wide linear range, high sensitivity, and compatibility with real urine sample.

Forensic toxicological implication of an autopsy case of mixed drug overdose involving clomipramine, chlorpromazine and flunitrazepam.

A case of fatal poisoning involving clomipramine, chlorpromazine and flunitrazepam is presented. Quantitative toxicological analysis showed that the concentrations of clomipramine, chlorpromazine and 7-aminoflunitrazepam (a metabolite of flunitrazepam) in the femoral blood were 3.24 microg/ml, 0.36 Kg/ml and 0.61 microg/ml, respectively, and large amounts of drugs were also detected from the stomach contents. We concluded that the cause of death was due to the combined use of clomipramine, chlorpromazine and flunitrazepam.