Simultaneous determination of levocetirizine dihydrochloride and montelukast sodium in human plasma by LC–MS/MS: development, validation, and application to a human pharmacokinetic study

Abstract

Objectives A simple, rapid, selective, and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of levocetirizine dihydrochloride and montelukast sodium in human plasma using fexofenadine hydrochloride as an internal standard. Method Liquid–liquid extraction of both drugs and internal standard from plasma into ethyl acetate was used for sample preparation and analysis. Separation of both drugs and internal standard was achieved on an Inertsil ODS-3 (4.6 mm × 50 cm, dp 5 μm, particle size) column using an isocratic mobile phase of acetonitrile and 10 mM ammonium formate adjusted to pH 8 with 50 μL ammonium hydroxide in composition of 73:27 (v/v) at a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. The LC–MS/MS was operated under the multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM) using an electrospray ionization technique. Mass parameters were optimized to monitor transitions at m/z [M + H]+ 389.0 → 200.8 for levocetirizine dihydrochloride, m/z [M + H]+ 586.2 → 422.2 for montelukast sodium, and m/z [M + H]+ 502.2 → 466.0 for fexofenadine hydrochloride. Results The method was found to be linear in the range of 1–500 ng/mL for both drugs. The intra-day and inter-day precision were in the range of 0.96–1.92% and 1.03–1.55%, respectively. Matrix effect was acceptable with %RSD < 15. Conclusion The proposed method was validated and successfully applied for a pharmacokinetic study of both drugs in human plasma after oral administration of their pharmaceutical preparation.