Voltammetric behavior of a candidate anticancer drug roscovitine at carbon electrodes in aqueous buffers and a cell culture medium

Roscovitine is a candidate anticancer drug acting as an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases which are involved in cell-cycle control and in apoptosis triggering. In our present study,we show for the first time that roscovitine yields a well-developed, analytically useful signal due to its irreversible electrochemical oxidation in alkaline range of pH (while in acidic media, its oxidation process is apparently rather complex and corresponding voltammetric signals are less suitable for analytical purposes). We demonstrate the possibility of voltammetric determination of the drug in buffer solutions (down to submicromolar concentrations of roscovitine) as well as in cell culture medium (down to micromolar concentrations) using in-house-fabricated pyrolytic graphite or screen-printed carbon electrodes. Graphical abstract