Electrochemical Sensor for the Determination of Adrenaline in Presence of Acetaminophen at Poly (Alanine) Modified Carbon Paste Electrode: A Cyclic Voltammetric Study

Abstract

IntroductionAdrenaline (AD) is one of the neurotransmitter catecholamine found in the mammalian central nervous system; exist in the form of large organic cations in the nervous tissue and biological body fluid [1]. It serves as a neurotransmitter for conveying the nerve pulse to different organs. Adrenaline is sympathomimetic drug widely used for the treatment of hypertension, cardiac arrest, myocardial infection and cardiac surgery in clinics. It also used to stimulate heartbeat and to treat emphysema, bronchitis, bronchial asthma and other allergic conditions, as well as in the treatment of the eye disease, glaucoma [2]. Variation in the concentration of AD leads to severe disease. Therefore, sensitive determination of adrenaline concentration has an important significance to medicine, nerve psychology and life science [3]. Several methods have been reported for the determination of adrenaline such as high performance liquid chromatography [4][5][6], fluorometry [7][8][9] chemiluminescence [10,11], capillary electrophoresis [12] and spectrophotometry [13]. However, such methods are quite complicated since some of these methods need derivatization or combination with various detection methods. They also have low sensitivity and specificity. Some reports have shown the electrochemical response of adrenaline on different kinds of electrodes such as poly (osmiumoxide/ hexacyanoruthenate) film modified CPE [14], poly (eriochrome black T) film modified GCE [15], poly (1-Methylpyrrole) modified glassy carbon electrode which exhibited good electro catalytic activity for the detection of adrenaline [3].Acetaminophen or paracetamol (AP) is widely used as an antipyretic and analgesic drug. It is an effective and safe analgesic agent used for the relief of mild to moderate pain associated with headache, backache, arthritis and postoperative pain [16]. It is also used for the reduction of fever caused by viral and bacterial origin. It relieves pain and fever by inhibiting prostaglandin's synthesis in the central nervous system and sedating hypothalamic heat-regulating center [17,18]. Generally, acetaminophen does not exhibit any harmful side effects. However, hypersensitivity or over dosage of AP leads to the formation of some liver and nephrotoxic metabolites. Moreover, the hydrolytic degradation product of acetaminophen is 4-aminophenol which can cause fatal hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. This species can be found in pharmaceutical preparations as a degradation product of acetaminophen or as a synthetic intermediate [19]. Acetaminophen drug is available in different dosage forms of tablets, capsules, suspensions. Thus development of simple, sensitive and accurate analytical methods for determination of acetaminophen in pharmaceutical products and human plasma is of great importance [20]. Many analytical methods are reported to determine the acetaminophen concentration such as spectrophotometry [21], high performance liquid chromatography [22], and voltammetry [23]. These techniques are generally expensive and time-c...