Simultaneous determination of flupirtine and its major active metabolite in human plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

J Chromatogr B Biomed Sci Appl. 2001 May 5;755(1-2):195-202. doi: 10.1016/s0378-4347(01)00076-7.

Abstract

A rapid, selective and sensitive HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of flupirtine and its active metabolite D-13223 in human plasma. The analytes and internal standard diphenhydramine were extracted from plasma samples by liquid-liquid extraction, and chromatographed on a C18 column. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-water-formic acid (60:40:1, v/v/v), at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. Detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode via atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). The method has a limit of quantitation of 10 ng/ml for flupirtine and 2 ng/ml for D-13223, using 0.5-ml plasma sample. The linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 10.0-1500.0 ng/ml for flupirtine and 2.0-300.0 ng/ml for D-13223. The intra- and inter-run precision (RSD), calculated from quality control (QC) samples was less than 7.2% for flupirtine and D-13223. The accuracy as determined from QC samples was less than 5% for the analytes. The overall extraction recoveries of flupirtine and D-13223 were determined to be about 66% and 78% on average, respectively. The method was applied for the evaluation of the pharmacokinetics of flupirtine and active metabolite D-13223 in volunteers following peroral administration.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aminopyridines / blood*
  • Aminopyridines / metabolism
  • Aminopyridines / pharmacokinetics
  • Analgesics / analysis*
  • Calibration
  • Chromatography, Liquid / methods*
  • Chromatography, Liquid / standards
  • Diphenhydramine / standards
  • Humans
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Aminopyridines
  • Analgesics
  • Diphenhydramine
  • flupirtine