High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis for the determination of a novel polymer-bound camptothecin derivative (MAG-camptothecin) and free camptothecin in human plasma

A selective HPLC assay is described for the determination of free and total (free plus polymer-bound) camptothecin (CPT) in human plasma after administration of the anti-tumor drug MAG-CPT (polymer bound camptothecin). Total CPT levels were determined after hydrolysis and free CPT was extracted from acidified plasma using Oasis solid-phase extraction material. Extracts were analyzed on a Zorbax SB-C₈ analytical column, using a mixture of acetonitrile–25 mM phosphate buffer (pH 4.0) as the eluent. Detection was performed fluorimetrically. Concentrations of polymer-bound CPT were calculated by subtraction of free from total CPT. The lower limits of quantitation of the methods were 100 ng/ml for total and 1.0 ng/ml for free CPT using 50 μl and 250 μl plasma, respectively. Special attention was paid to the stability of the analytes. The presented method was successfully applied in a clinical pharmacokinetic study in our institute.