Electrochemical Synthesis and Kinetic Evaluation of Electrooxidation of Acetaminophen in the Presence of Antidepressant Drugs

With the aim of obtaining information about drug-drug interaction (DDI) between acetaminophen and some of antidepressant drugs (fluoxetine, sertraline and nortriptyline), in the present work we studied the electrochemical oxidation of acetaminophen (paracetamol) in the presence of these drugs by means of cyclic voltammetry and Controlled-potential coulometry. The reaction between N-acetyl-p benzoquinone-imine (NAPQI) produced from electrooxidation of acetaminophen and antidepressant drugs (see scheme 1) cause to reduce the concentration of NAPQI and decreases the effective concentration of antidepressants.The cyclic voltammetric data were analyzed by digital simulation to measure the homogeneous parameters for the suggesting electrode mechanism. The calculated observed homogeneous rate constants (kobs) for the reaction of electrochemically generated N-acetyl-para benzoquinn-imine with antidepressant drugs was found to vary in the order kobsnortriptyline> kobssertraline > kobsfluoxetineat biological pH.