Validation of non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis for simultaneous determination of four tricyclic antidepressants in pharmaceutical formulations and plasma samples.

We present the validation of a method using non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) for quantitative analysis of four tricyclic antidepressants (TADs) in pharmaceutical formulations and plasma. The method presented high resolution allowing the separation of the TADs in 4.3 min at optimized conditions: 50 mM ammonium acetate, 1 M acetic acid in acetonitrile, capillary with 48 cm in length, 40 cm to the detector, and voltage of 30 kV. Acceptable precision (relative standard deviation R.S.D.14.1% from plasma samples) and linearity were achieved using the internal standard (IS) method. The limits of quantification determined for plasma, after liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), were between 30 and 50 ng ml-1. These values are beyond the plasmatic therapeutic concentration. Our results were found comparable or better than those described in the literature for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based methods.

In vitro monitoring of GTPase activity and enzyme kinetics studies using capillary electrophoresis.

A capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based method for the in vitro detection and monitoring of nucleotide-triphosphatase activity is described. This robust and reproducible method was used to investigate GTPase activity of a recombinant protein construct containing the catalytic domain of Human SEPT4/Bradeion beta (GST-rDGTPase). This example application demonstrates that the CE technique can replace classical radioactive methods for GTPase activity assays and may be used as a routine analytical tool. Enzyme kinetics of GST-rDGTPase was studied and yielded the following kinetic parameters: v(max) = 1.7 microM min(-1) +/- 0.1, Km = 1.0 mM +/- 0.3, and apKcat = 9 x 10(-3) s(-1). In addition the effect of co-factors such as Mg2+ and Mn2+ on the catalytic activity was investigated. The described analytical method was also shown to be useful to analyze diphosphated and triphosphated forms of other nucleotides.