Determination of a catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor, nitecapone, in human plasma and urine by liquid chromatography

Methods based on reversed-phase liquid chromatography with amperometric detection have been developed for determination of nitecapone, 3-(3,4-dihydroxy-5-nitrobenzylidene)-2,4-pentanedione, a COMT inhibitor, in human plasma and urine. Nitecapone was extracted with ethyl acetate-hexane mixtures from plasma after acidification with hydrochloric acid and from urine as the tetrabutylammonium ion-pair of its diphenylborate derivative. The recoveries of both methods exceeded 70% and the relative standard deviations for within-day precision were less than 4% and 8% at 50 ng ml-1 and at the quantitation limits, respectively. The methods are selective, sensitive and precise enough for determination of 4-5 ng ml-1 of nitecapone in plasma and urine and are thus suitable for the kind of pharmacokinetic studies exemplified in this paper.