Electrochemical behavior of marcellomycin at lipid-modified carbon-paste electrodes

A lipid-modified carbon-paste electrode is prepared by mixing phospholipids with the carbon-paste matrix. The resulting electrodes have polar head-groups which allow interactions with positively charged drugs and improved preconcentration/extraction steps. The accumulation of the antitumor drug, marcellomycin, is enhanced in the presence of lipids, giving an 8-fold enhancement of current. The electrode response has been optimized with respect to paste composition, nature of the lipid, pH, temperature, and stirring time. A mechanism for marcellomycin accumulation is proposed, based on electrochemical and UV-visible spectrometric measurements as a function of pH. The electrode response is linearly related to the marcellomycin concentration within the range 1 x 10(-8)-6 x 10(-6)M. Known amounts of marcellomycin added to a urine sample diluted sixfold with water have been measured by use of the medium-exchange technique.