Drug-human serum albumin binding studied by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemiluminescence detection

A new technique for investigating drug-protein binding was developed employing capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium(II) [Ru(bpy)(3) (2+)] electrochemiluminescence (ECL) (CE-ECL) detection after equilibrium dialysis. Three basic drugs, namely pridinol, procyclidine and its analogue trihexyphenidyl, were successfully separated by capillary zone electrophoresis with end-column Ru(bpy)(3) (2+) ECL detection. The relative drug binding to human serum albumin (HSA) for each single drug as well as for the three drugs binding simultaneously was calculated. It was found that the three antiparkinsonian drugs compete for the same binding site on HSA. This work demonstrated that Ru(bpy)(3) (2+) CE-ECL can be a suitable technique for studying drug-protein binding.