New ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of irbesartan in human plasma

Abstract

With the objective of reducing analysis time and maintaining good efficiency, there has been substantial focus on high-speed chromatographic separations and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) is a preeminent analytical tool for rapid biomedical analysis. In this study a simple, rapid, sensitive, and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-MS/MS method was developed and validated for quantification of the angiotensin II receptor antagonist, irbesartan (IRB), in human plasma. After a simple protein precipitation using methanol and acetonitrile, IRB and internal standard (IS) telmisartan were separated on Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, i.d. 1.7 μm, Waters, Milford, MA, USA) using a mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile: methanol: 10 mM ammonium acetate (70: 15: 15 v/v/v) with a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min and detected MS/MS in negative ion mode. The ion transitions recorded in multiple reaction monitoring mode were m/z 427.2→193.08 for IRB and m/z 513.2→469.3 for IS. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 2–500 ng/mL for IRB in human plasma with good correlation coefficient of (0.995) and with a lower limit of quantitation of 2 ng/mL. The intra- and interassay precisions were satisfactory; the relative standard deviations did not exceed 9.91%. The proposed UPLC-MS/MS method is simple, rapid, and highly sensitive, and hence it could be reliable for pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic study in both animals and humans.