First voltammetric analysis of two possible anticancer drug candidates using an unmodified glassy carbon electrode

Abstract

Dimethyl 2-[2-(1-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-2-yl)hydrazinylidene]butanedioate (DIHB) and 8-(3-chlorophenyl)-2,6,7,8-tetrahydroimidazo[2,1-c][1,2,4]triazine-3,4-dione (HDIT) are promising candidates for anticancer agents, the first analytical procedures of which are presented in this paper. The commercially available unmodified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was used as a sensor for the individual and simultaneous differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) determination of these possible anticancer drugs. The findings concerning the electrochemical behaviour indicated that DIHB and HDIT display at GCE, as a sensor, the oxidation peaks at 1.18 and 0.98 V, respectively (vs. Ag/AgCl, 3.0 mol L−1 KCl) in the 0.125 mol L−1 acetate buffer of pH = 4.5, which were employed for their quantification. Various experimental parameters were carefully investigated, to achieve high sensitivity in voltammetric measurements. Finally, under the optimised conditions (t of 60 s, ΔEA of 75 mV, ν of 225 mV s−1, and tm of 2 ms), the proposed DPV procedure with the GCE demonstrated broad linear sensing ranges (1–200 nmol L−1—DIHB and 5–200 nmol L−1—HDIT), boasting the detection limits of 0.18 nmol L−1 for DIHB and 1.1 nmol L−1 for HDIT. Moreover, the developed procedure was distinguished by good selectivity, repeatability of DIHB and HDIT signals and sensor reproducibility. The practical application of this method was demonstrated by analysing the urine reference material without any prior treatment. The results showed that this environmentally friendly approach, with a modification-free sensor, is suitable for the sensitive, selective and rapid quantification of DIHB and HDIT.