A chiral liquid chromatography method for the simultaneous determination of oxcarbazepine, eslicarbazepine, R-licarbazepine and other new chemical derivatives BIA 2-024, BIA 2-059 and BIA 2-265, in mouse plasma and brain.

Recently, in silico models have been developed to predict drug pharmacokinetics. However, before application, they must be validated and, for that, information about structurally similar reference compounds is required. A chiral liquid chromatography method with ultraviolet detection (LC-UV) was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of BIA 2-024, BIA 2-059, BIA 2-265, oxcarbazepine, eslicarbazepine (S-licarbazepine) and R-licarbazepine in mouse plasma and brain. Compounds were extracted by a selective solid-phase extraction procedure and their chromatographic separation was achieved on a LiChroCART 250-4 ChiraDex column using a mobile phase of water-methanol (92:8, v/v) pumped at 0.7 mL/min. The UV detector was set at 235 nm. Calibration curves were linear (r(2)  ≥ 0.996) over the concentration ranges of 0.2-30 µg/mL for oxcarbazepine, eslicarbazepine and R-licarbazepine; 0.2-60 µg/mL for the remaining compounds in plasma; and 0.06-15 µg/mL for all the analytes in brain homogenate. Taking into account all analytes at these concentration ranges in both matrices, the overall precision did not exceed 9.09%, and the accuracy was within ±14.3%. This LC-UV method is suitable for carrying out pharmacokinetic studies with these compounds in mouse in order to obtain a better picture of their metabolic pathways and biodistribution.