Development of conditions for sertraline isolation from biological fluids

The toxicological significance of antidepressant drugs is steadily increasing. Development of the effective methods of the sample preparation is a topical issue of the chemical-toxicological analysis of antidepressants. Aim. To develop conditions for isolating the antidepressant sertraline from the blood and urine by the liquid-liquid extraction. Materials and methods. The studies were performed with model blood and urine samples spiked with sertraline. In the study of the blood, the formed blood elements were pre-precipitated by adding a 10 % solution of trichloroacetic acid. Extraction purification was performed with hexane at pH 1, and the drug was extracted from biological fluids with chloroform at pH 8. The extracts obtained were further subjected to the TLC purification. Determination of sertraline in eluates from chromatograms was performed by the UV spectrophotometric method. Results and discussion. The Rf value of sertraline in the mobile phase of methanol – 25 % ammonium hydroxide solution (100:10.5) was 0.42 ± 0.02. The UV spectra of the eluates from the chromatograms had absorption maxima at wavelengths of 268 ± 2, 275 ± 2 and 283 ± 2 nm and matched with the UV spectrum of a standard solution of sertraline in 0.1 mole/L ethanol solution of hydrochloric acid. The quantitative determination was performed at λmax 275 nm according to the equation of the calibration curve y = 0,00216x–0,03. The methods developed allowed to isolate 80.0 ± 4.0 % of sertraline from the urine, 39.0 ± 2.0 % from the blood serum, and additionally 8.0 ± 0.7 % of the antidepressant studiedfrom the blood sediment after its separation from the blood serum. Conclusions. The effective conditions for the sample preparation of biological fluids using the liquid-liquid extraction method for the antidepressant sertraline have been determined. The results obtained are of practical importance for creating an algorithm for the toxicological study of biological samples for the presence of this antidepressant in case of fatal drug intoxications.