Development of a validated LC-MS/MS method for determination of doxofylline on rat dried blood spots and urine: application to pharmacokinetics.

A rapid and highly sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method for determination of doxofylline on rat dried blood spots and urine was developed and validated. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a reverse phase C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm), using 20 mM ammonium acetate (pH adjusted to 3.5 with trifluoroacetic acid) and acetonitrile (75:25 v/v) as a mobile phase at 25 °C. LC-MS detection was performed with selective ion monitoring using target ions at m/z 267 and m/z 195 for doxofylline and caffeine used as internal standard respectively. The calibration curve showed a good linearity in the concentration range of 1-5000 ng/mL. The effect of hematocrit on extraction of doxofylline from DBS was evaluated. The mean recoveries of doxofylline from DBS and urine were 93.46 and 89.86% respectively. The intra and inter-day precisions were less than 4.28% in DBS as well as urine. The limit of detection and quantification were 0.24 and 0.84 ng/mL in DBS and 0.28 and 1.00 ng/mL in urine samples respectively. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines and successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of doxofylline in rats.