A rapid and sensitive method for the analysis of brain monoamine neurotransmitters using ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled to electrochemical detection

► Catecholamines and indolamines are the most studied monoamines in neuroscience. ► Time of routine analyses by conventional HPLC and electrochemical detection is too long. ► Use of sub-2 μm particles increases the throughput of analysis using ultra-fast HPLC. ► Brain monoamines can be determined in various tissue samples by this way. ► Potential applications of ultra-fast HPLC in brain dialysis. Electrochemical detection is often used to detect catecholamines and indolamines in brain samples that have been separated by conventional reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This paper presents the transfer of an existing chromatographic method for the determination of monoamines in brain tissues using 5 μm granulometry HPLC columns to columns with a particle diameter less than 3 μm. Several parameters (repeatability, linearity, accuracy, limit of detection, and stability of samples) for this new ultrafast high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method were examined after optimization of the analytical conditions. The separation of seven compounds, noradrenaline, dopamine and three of its metabolites, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, homovanillic acid, and 3-methoxytyramine, and serotonin and its metabolite, 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid was analyzed using this UHPLC–electrochemical detection method. The final method, which was applied to brain tissue extracts from mice, rats, and cats, decreased analysis time by a factor of 4 compared to HPLC, while guaranteeing good analytical performance.