Sensitive determination of aripiprazole using chemiluminescence reaction of tris(1,10-phenanthroline)ruthenium(II) with acidic Ce(IV)

Aripiprazole (ARP) is an atypical antipsychotic medication used for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. In this study, a new method using the chemiluminescence (CL) of tris(1,10-phenanthroline)-ruthenium(II), Ru(phen)(2+)(3), was developed for the rapid and sensitive determination of ARP in pharmaceuticals and human plasma. The method is based on the fact that the weak chemiluminescence produced in the reaction of Ru(phen)(2+)(3) and acidic Ce(IV) is enhanced in the presence of ARP. Under the selected experimental conditions, calibration curves were linear from 1.8 to 18.0 ng mL(-1) (r(2) = 0.9951) and from 18 to 35 900 ng mL(-1) (r(2) = 0.9987). The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.9 ng mL(-1) (S/N = 3). In the method proposed, the LOD was about 100 times lower than the therapeutic concentration of ARP. The percent relative standard deviations (% RSDs) for 11 repeated measurements of 180 and 720 ng mL(-1) of ARP were 4.5 and 5.2%, respectively. The sampling rate for analysis was 70 samples per hour. The proposed method was successfully applied to the assay of commercial tablets containing the drug, and the results were in accordance with those obtained with the reference method. The method was further applied to the determination of the drug in plasma samples. The possible CL reaction mechanism was also discussed briefly.