Improved liquid-chromatographic determination of cyclosporine, with concomitant detection of a cell-bound metabolite.

This unique extraction and isocratic "high-performance" liquid chromatographic method for measuring cyclosporine (CsA) in blood involves a Zorbax cyanopropyl analytical column maintained at 58 degrees C, with detection at 214 nm, and recycling of the water:acetonitrile mobile phase for improved long-term column stability and efficiency. Routinely, 1.0 mL of serum, plasma, or whole blood is diluted with water:acetonitrile (70:30) and applied to a disposable solid-phase cyanopropyl column to rapidly extract the drug and the internal standard cyclosporin D (CsD). Analytical recovery for this step averages 90% with whole blood and 98% with serum and plasma. Between-run CVs were 6.5 and 2.6% for means of 104 and 1128 micrograms/L, respectively. The standard curve is linear up to 1600 micrograms/L. The minimum detection limit is 10 to 15 micrograms/L. No interferences from endogenous substances or other drugs were found. In addition, a compound cross reacting with the Sandoz radioimmunoassay antibody was isolated from patients' samples with the present procedure and was tentatively identified as a CsA metabolite(s). It appears to be highly partitioned on blood cells, very little being detected in the serum or plasma. In a comparison with RIA, correlation coefficients were 0.828 and 0.652 for serum and whole blood, respectively. Results from a 12-h pharmacokinetic study in which different sample types were analyzed by RIA and liquid chromatography further exemplified major discrepancies between types of CsA determinations.