Utility of Ion-Pair Chromatography for Analysis of Some Anthracyclines in Plasma and Urine

Abstract A high performance liquid chromatographic assay was developed and validated for a simultaneous determination of adriamycin and its metabolites adriamycinol and adriamycinone as well as daunomycin in plasma. Acetonitrile and trichloroacetic acid were employed in removing proteins and extracting the drugs and metabolites into the supernatant for HPLC. Enhancement of chemical stability of the anthracyclines during sampling procedure was investigated using 0.01 M γ-cyclodextrin. The processed samples were chromatographed using an ODS/TM column (150 × 4.6 mm I.D.) eluted with a mobile phase composed of 35% acetonitrile and 65% (0.1M) monobasic phosphate, containing 0.3% heptafluorobutyric acid, pH 3. The detection was performed fluorimetrically at emission and excitation wavelengths of 555 and 460 nm, respectively. The described method could be directly applied for analysis of tested anthracyclines in human urine without sample pretreatment.