Recent Advances in the Electrochemical Sensing of Venlafaxine: An Antidepressant Drug and Environmental Contaminant.

Somayeh Tajik,Zahra Dourandish,Quyet Van Le,Soo Young Kim,Mohammadreza Shokouhimehr,Kaiqiang Zhang,Thang Phan Nguyen,Hadi Beitollahi

doi:10.3390/s20133675

Abstract

Venlafaxine (VEN), as one of the popular anti-depressants, is widely utilized for the treatment of major depressive disorder, panic disorder, as well as anxiety. This drug influences the chemicals in the brain, which may result in imbalance in depressed individuals. However, venlafaxine and its metabolites are contaminants in water. They have exerted an adverse influence on living organisms through their migration and transformation in various forms of adsorption, photolysis, hydrolysis, and biodegradation followed by the formation of various active compounds in the environment. Hence, it is crucial to determine VEN with low concentrations in high sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility. Some analytical techniques have been practically designed to quantify VEN. However, electroanalytical procedures have been of interest due to the superior advantages in comparison to conventional techniques, because such methods feature rapidity, simplicity, sensitivity, and affordability. Therefore, this mini-review aims to present the electrochemical determination of VEN with diverse electrodes, such as carbon paste electrodes, glassy carbon electrodes, mercury-based electrodes, screen-printed electrodes, pencil graphite electrodes, and ion-selective electrodes.

Highlights

Environmental problems caused by the large usage of antidepressants have gained wide attention in scientific communities
According to studies in this field, the commonly utilized procedures to analyze VEN in the biological samples are based on the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultra-violet detection, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis, solid-phase extraction, and tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), followed by spectrofluorometric determination [10]
Another study conducted by Eslami et al combined the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and the ionic liquid, 1-octylpyridinium hexaflouro-phosphate (OPFP), and yielded a carbon nanocomposite (MWCNT-carbon ionic liquid electrode (CILE)) with an acceptable utilization as the electrode for the VEN

Summary

Introduction

Environmental problems caused by the large usage of antidepressants have gained wide attention in scientific communities. According to studies in this field, the commonly utilized procedures to analyze VEN in the biological samples are based on the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultra-violet detection, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis, solid-phase extraction, and tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), followed by spectrofluorometric determination [10]. In comparison to many analytical procedures, advancements in the electrochemical technique include the increased selectivity and sensitivity in determining analytes of organic molecules and medicines without the need for pretreatment or pre-separation. It features benefits like inexpensiveness, shorter analysis duration, wider linear responses, acceptable stability, greater accuracy, and reproducibility.

Electrodes

Electrochemical Detection of Venlafaxine

Method

Mercury‐Based

Future Outlook

Conclusions