Determination of vortioxetine in human serum and saliva samples by HPLC–DAD and HPLC–MS

Vortioxetine is a new drug against major depressive disorder with high affinity for a range of different serotonergic targets in the central nervous system. Therapeutic drug monitoring is an important tool for the clinical management of patients receiving a pharmacotherapy, particularly in psychiatry. For this reason, determination of drug concentration in biological fluids is important for a rational dosage of drugs. Rapid and reliable analytical assays are also required to detect and identify drugs of toxicological importance. For analysis of vortioxetine by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), no procedures for its determination in saliva have been reported and there are only a few ones for its determination in serum. A sensitive and selective highperformance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) or mass spectrometer (HPLC-MS) method was developed for the fast quantification of vortioxetine in human saliva and serum. The determination was performed on a Synergi Polar RP column in isocratic mode under the optimal mobile phase containing 70% methanol, 20% acetate buffer at pH 3.5, 10% double distilled water, and 0.025 M L −1 diethylamine.