Alterations in levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and adenosine have been implicated in addiction and in numerous diseases, such as depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's.  Often, neurotransmitters are sampled by microdialysis in vivo or by perfusion in vitro and are collected in fractions, which are manually injected onto high performance liquid chromatography instruments for separation and electrochemical detection.  Electrochemical detection is sensitive but can suffer from poor selectivity making identification and discrimination of multiple analytes difficult.  Furthermore, manual fraction collection and injection is tedious and limits long-term monitoring capabilities.  More detailed study of psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases requires reliable, automated methods of simultaneously monitoring multiple neurotransmitters. We have developed a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based method for automated sampling, injection, and detection of multiple neurotransmitters.  The system employs a 10-port switching valve for computer-controlled injections and can be coupled to microdialysis or cell perfusion for continuous online injection and detection.

Development of an automated sampling and injection system for continuous liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based neurotransmitter detection

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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