Voltammetric determination of dopamine in the presence of ascorbic and uric acids using partial least squares regression: determination of dopamine in human urine and plasma

A new differential pulse voltammetric method for dopamine determination at a bare glassy carbon electrode has been developed. Dopamine, ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA) usually coexist in physiological samples. Because AA and UA can be oxidized at potentials close to that of DA it is difficult to determine dopamine electrochemically, although resolution can be achieved using modified electrodes. Additionally, oxidized dopamine mediates AA oxidation and the electrode surface can be easily fouled by the AA oxidation product. In this work a chemometrics strategy, partial least squares (PLS) regression, has been applied to determine dopamine in the presence of AA and UA without electrode modification. The method is based on the electrooxidation of dopamine at a glassy carbon electrode in pH 7 phosphate buffer. The dopamine calibration curve was linear over the range of 1–313 μM and the limit of detection was 0.25 μM. The relative standard error (RSE %) was 5.28%. The method has been successfully applied to the measurement of dopamine in human plasma and urine.