New ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of irbesartan in human plasma

With the objective of reducing analysis time and maintaining good efficiency, there has been substantial focus on high-speed chromatographic separations and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) is a preeminent analytical tool for rapid biomedical analysis. In this study a simple, rapid, sensitive, and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-MS/MS method was developed and validated for quantification of the angiotensin II receptor antagonist, irbesartan (IRB), in human plasma. After a simple protein precipitation using methanol and acetonitrile, IRB and internal standard (IS) telmisartan were separated on Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, i.d. 1.7 μm, Waters, Milford, MA, USA) using a mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile: methanol: 10 mM ammonium acetate (70: 15: 15 v/v/v) with a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min and detected MS/MS in negative ion mode. The ion transitions recorded in multiple reaction monitoring mode were m/z 427.2→193.08 for IRB and m/z 513.2→469.3 for IS. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 2–500 ng/mL for IRB in human plasma with good correlation coefficient of (0.995) and with a lower limit of quantitation of 2 ng/mL. The intra- and interassay precisions were satisfactory; the relative standard deviations did not exceed 9.91%. The proposed UPLC-MS/MS method is simple, rapid, and highly sensitive, and hence it could be reliable for pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic study in both animals and humans.