Determination of lansoprazole and two of its metabolites by liquid–liquid extraction and automated column-switching high-performance liquid chromatography: application to measuring CYP2C19 activity

A simple and sensitive column-switching high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of lansoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor and its major metabolites: 5-hydroxylansoprazole and lansoprazole sulfone in human plasma. The test compounds were extracted from 1 mL of plasma using diethyl ether–dichloromethane (7:3, v/v) mixture and the extract was injected into a column I (TSK-PW precolumn, 10 μm, 3.5 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) for clean-up and column I (C18 STR ODS-II analytical column, 5 μm, 150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) for separation. The peak was detected by a ultraviolet detector set at a wavelength of 285 nm, and the total time for a chromatographic separation was ∼25 min. The method was validated for the concentration range from 3 to 5000 ng/mL. Mean recoveries were 74.0% for lansoprazole, 68.3% for 5-hydroxylansoprazole, and 79.4% for lansoprazole sulfone. Intra- and inter-day relative standard derivatives were less than 6.1 and 5.1% for lansoprazole, 5.8 and 5.8% for 5-hydroxylansoprazole, 4.4 and 5.9% for lansoprazole sulfone, respectively, at the different concentration ranges. This method is suitable for use in therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies, and provides use tool for measuring CYP2C19 activity.