Sorption of structurally different ionized pharmaceutical and illicit drugs to a mixed-mode coated microsampler.

The mixed-mode (C18/strong cation exchange-SCX) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber has recently been shown to have increased sensitivity for ionic compounds compared to more conventional sampler coatings such as polyacrylate and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). However, data for structurally diverse compounds to this (prototype) sampler coating are too limited to define its structural limitations. We determined C18/SCX fiber partitioning coefficients of nineteen cationic structures without hydrogen bonding capacity besides the charged group, stretching over a wide hydrophobicity range (including amphetamine, amitriptyline, promazine, chlorpromazine, triflupromazine, difenzoquat), and eight basic pharmaceutical and illicit drugs (pKa>8.

Sensitive determination of plasma protein binding of cationic drugs using mixed-mode solid-phase microextraction.

Freely dissolved concentrations are considered to be the most relevant concentration in pharmacology and toxicology, as they represent the active concentration available for interaction with its surroundings. Here, a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coating that combines octadecyl and propylsulfonic acid groups as strong cation exchange sites, known as C18/SCX or "mixed-mode" SPME, is used to measure freely dissolved concentrations of amitriptyline, amphetamine, diazepam and tramadol to different binding matrices, including bovine serum albumin (BSA), human serum albumin (HSA), human plasma and human whole blood. A potential confounding factor in binding studies is that proteins may sorb to the fiber coating leading to incorrect measurement of protein sorption or changes in uptake kinetics to the fiber coating.

Sorption of amitriptyline and amphetamine to mixed-mode solid-phase microextraction in different test conditions.

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method based on a sampler coating that includes strong cation groups (C18/SCX) is explored as a rapid direct sampling tool to detect and quantify freely dissolved basic drugs. Sampling kinetics, sorption isotherms and competitive effects on extraction yields in mixtures were tested for amphetamine and the relatively large/hydrophobic tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline. Both compounds are >99% ionized at pH 7.

Elucidating the sorption mechanism of "mixed-mode" SPME using the basic drug amphetamine as a model compound.

We studied the sorption of amphetamine as a model drug to represent small, polar organic cations to a new SPME coating combining C18 and propylsulfonic acid. This combination of hydrophobic and strong cation exchange (SCX) groups was compared to conventional SPME fibers with polyacrylate (PA) or C18 coating. The affinity of amphetamine at physiological pH (PBS) was 20 to 180 times greater for the new C18/SCX coating than for C18 alone and PA of different coating thickness.