[Quantitative determination of biogenic amine from nervous system by UPLC MS/MS].

Objective: To establish a method for the quantitative determination of serotonin and dopamine in the nervous system of by using ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC MS/MS) .

Methods: The nervous system was broken in the pure methanol solution after obtaining it by dissecting with microscope. Then, the supernatant containing the target substance after twice high speed centrifugation was got. The extraction was separated on an ACQUITY UPLC BEH Amide column with Waters TQ-XS series mass spectrometry detector, with ESI source and positive electrospray ionization mode when the machine testing.

Results: The detection limit of serotonin was 0.03 ng/ml and the limit of quantification was 0.1 ng/ml. The detection limit of dopamine was 0.05 ng/ml and the limit of quantification was 0.15 ng/ml. The recoveries of serotonin ranged from 90.68% to 94.72% over the range of 1 to 40 ng/ml. The recoveries of dopamine ranged from 91.68% to 96.12% over the range of 1.0 ng/ml to 40 ng/ml.

Conclusions: The established UPLC MS/MS method is simple, stable and reproducible. It can be used for the quantitative analysis of serotonin and dopamine in the nervous system of snails.