Determination of monoamine neurotransmitters and metabolites by high-performance liquid chromatography based on Ag(III) complex chemiluminescence detection

Abstract A novel, simple and efficient chemiluminescence system has been developed for the determination of monoamine neurotransmitters and metabolites. By using the Ag (III)-luminol chemiluminescence system as a detector, a high performance liquid chromatography chemiluminescence method (HPLC-CL) was established and used to detect seven monoamine neurotransmitters. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits (3S/N) of epinephrine (E), levodopa ( l -DOPA), dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and 5-hydroxypentylacetic acid (5-HIAA) were 20.0 μg dm−3,15.0 μg dm−3, 15.0 μg dm−3, 8.0 μg dm−3, 2.0 μg dm−3, 2.0 μg dm−3 and 3.0 μg dm−3, respectively. Moreover, they were well within the linear range of 50–1000 μg dm−3, 50–1000 μg dm−3, 50–1000 μg dm−3, 25–1000 μg dm−3, 5–25 μg dm−3, 5–25 μg dm−3 and 10–30 μg dm−3, respectively. The average recovery varied between 84.82% and 110.4%. The method has the attributes of simplicity, high sensitivity, and high efficiency. The sensitization and inhibition mechanisms for luminol-[Ag(HIO6)2]5–- analytes CL system were proposed by CL spectra and free-radical capture experiment.