Determination of Levodopa by Capillary Electrophoresis with Chemiluminescence Detection (CAT#: STEM-ET-0294-ZJF)

Introduction

Levodopa [3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-lalanine], a precursor of the neurotransmitter dopamine, is the most widely prescribed drug in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. People with Parkinson's disease have depleted levels of dopamine, which causes tremor, muscle stiffness or rigidity, slowness of movement (bradykinesia) and loss of balance. Dopamine cannot be administered directly because it does not cross the blood brain barrier readily, while its precursor levodopa is given orally and is easily absorbed through the bowel and converted into dopamine by decarboxylase. Then, levodopa is used to increase dopamine in the brain, which reduces the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Nevertheless, elevated levels of dopamine also cause adverse reactions such as nausea, vomiting and cardiac arrhythmias. Therefore, in order to achieve a better curative effect and a lower toxicity, it is very important to rapidly control the content of levodopa and its inhibitors and impurities in biological fluids and pharmaceutical formulations.
This service provides a rapid and simple method using capillary electrophoresis (CE) with chemiluminescence (CL) detection for the determination of levodopa.