Quantification of hydroxyurea in human plasma by HPLC-MS/MS and its application to pharmacokinetics in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia

摘要

Hydroxyurea (HU) has been used in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and other myeloproliferative malignancies. Considering patient's wide variation in clinical response to HU, a new and simple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to monitor patients' compliance to treatment and investigate the pharmacokinetics of HU in patients with CML. Stable isotope labeled HU-C-13(1),N-15(2) was used as internal standard. Plasma samples were treated with acetonitrile to precipitate protein. The supernatant was injected directly without derivatization and separated on a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography column. HU was quantitatively analyzed with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-1.5 mM ammonium formate (90:10, V:V) within 3 min. The proposed method provided a linearity range of 1-200 mu g/mL. The coefficients of variation for intra- and inter-day precision were less than 2.07% and 4.28%, respectively, while the accuracy (bias) was in the range of -3.77 to 2.96%. This method was satisfactorily applied to the determination of HU in two patients with CML. It is suitable for supporting pharmacokinetic studies and clinical therapeutic monitoring. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.