Quantitation of donepezil and its active metabolite 6-O-desmethyl donepezil in human plasma by a selective and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric method Original Research Article

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) assay for the simultaneous determination of donepezil (D) and its pharmacologically active metabolite, 6-O-desmethyl donepezil (6-ODD) in human plasma is developed using galantamine as internal standard (IS). The analytes and IS were extracted from 500 μL aliquots of human plasma via solid-phase extraction (SPE) on Waters Oasis HLB cartridges. Chromatographic separation was achieved in a run time of 6.0 min on a Waters Novapak C18 (150 mm × 3.9 mm, 4 μm) column under isocratic conditions. Detection of analytes and IS was done by tandem mass spectrometry, operating in positive ion and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) acquisition mode. The protonated precursor to product ion transitions monitored for D, 6-ODD and IS were at m/z 380.1 → 91.2, 366.3 → 91.3 and 288.2 → 213.2, respectively. The method was fully validated for its selectivity, interference check, sensitivity, linearity, precision and accuracy, recovery, matrix effect, ion suppression/enhancement, cross-specificity, stability and dilution integrity. A linear dynamic range of 0.10–50.0 ng mL−1 for D and 0.02–10.0 ng mL−1 for 6-ODD was evaluated with mean correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9975 and 0.9985, respectively. The intra-batch and inter-batch precision (%CV, coefficient of variation) across five quality control levels was less than 7.5% for both the analytes. The method was successfully applied to a bioequivalence study of 10 mg donepezil tablet formulation in 24 healthy Indian male subjects under fasting condition.