A Simple Protein Precipitation-based Simultaneous Quantification of Lovastatin and Its Active Metabolite Lovastatin Acid in Human Plasma by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry using Polarity Switching.

ABSTRACT: Lovastatin is an anti-cholesterol lactone drug indicated for the treatment of hyperlipidemia and to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. It is converted to the ?-hydroxy acid form (lovastatin acid) in vivo, which is the major pharmacologically active metabolite. Here, we describe the development and validation of an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS)-based method utilizing polarity switching for the simultaneous quantification of lovastatin and lovastatin acid in human plasma. Simple protein precipitation extraction and direct injection of the extracted samples without drying/reconstitution showed good recoveries of both analytes (~70%). The developed method exhibited satisfactory intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision. The interconversion between lovastatin and lovastatin acid during sample preparation and storage was minimal (< 1.9%). The lower limits of quantification were 0.5 and 0.2 nM (or 0.2 and 0.084 ng/mL) for lovastatin and lovastatin acid, respectively, using only 50 ?L of plasma during extraction. The validated method was successfully applied to analyze plasma samples obtained from a healthy human subject who enrolled in a clinical drug interaction study involving lovastatin.

SUBMITTER: Wujian J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4486316 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature