Development and validation of a specific and sensitive LC–MS/MS method for determination of eslicarbazepine in human plasma and its clinical pharmacokinetic study

In this work, we developed and validated the specific, sensitive and simple LC–MS/MS method for quantification of eslicarbazepine in human plasma. The analyte samples were prepared through a simple one-step protein precipitation method by acetonitrile . The chromatographic separation was operated on an economical Hanbon ODS-2 C18 column (150 mm × 2.1 mm, 10 μm) with isocratic elution using 10 mM ammonium acetate containing 0.01% formic acid and acetonitrile (72:28, v/v) as the mobile phase at the flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The mass quantification was carried on the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) of the transitions of m / z 255.1 → 194.1 for eslicarbazepine and m / z 446.1 → 321.1 for glipizide (the internal standard), respectively. The established method was validated with acceptable specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, extraction recovery, matrix effect and stability in accordance with FDA regulations. At last, the validated method was successfully applied to determination of eslicarbazepine in human plasma obtained from clinical study.