Determination of teniposide in rat plasma by ultra performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry after intravenous administration.

A novel, specific and rapid ultra performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for determination of teniposide in rat plasma. A one-step liquid-liquid extraction method was used and the separation was carried out on an Acquity UPLC(TM) BEH C(18) column with gradient elution using a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile and water (containing 0.1% formic acid) at a flow rate of 0.20 mL/min. A triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer in multiple-reaction monitoring mode via an electrospray ionization interface was used for the detection of teniposide. The detection was complete within 3.0 min. A linear calibration curve was obtained over the concentration range 10-10,000 ng/mL for teniposide, with a lower limit of quantification of 10 ng/mL. The intra-day precision and inter-day precision (relative standard deviation) were less than 10.23 and 13.09%, respectively. The developed method was applied for the first time to the pharmacokinetic study of teniposide in rats following a single intravenous administration of 4.5 mg/kg teniposide.