Determination of New 4-Aryl-pyrido[1,2-c]pyrimidine Derivatives, Potential Antidepressant Agents with a High Affinity to 5-Hydroxytryptamin 1A Receptor and Serotonin Transporter Protein Receptor, with Capillary Electrophoresis

A novel capillary electrophoresis method was developed for the determination of new 4-aryl-pyrido[1,2-c]pyrimidine derivatives, potential antidepressant agents, in serum. The derivatives have conformationally restricted tryptamine moiety in pharmacophore portion and exhibit high affinity to molecular targets: 5-HT_1A receptor and serotonin transporter protein. The separation process was conducted using an eCAP fused-silica capillary, detection wavelength 214 nm, 200 mM phosphate buffer adjusted to pH = 8.0, temperature 20 °C, voltage 5 kV. The proposed method was validated by determining its linearity in the concentration range of 200–1000 ng/mL. A satisfactory linearity was obtained for the method, with R² from 0.9978 to 0.9999 for all five derivatives and a limit of quantification level from 287.1 to 310.1 ng/mL. The recoveries for all derivatives were in the range from 94.7 to 100%. The speed of obtaining the result of the analysis was only 3 min. The developed method allows to determine all five derivatives both in water solutions and serum.