Simple and sensitive liquid chromatographic method with fluorimetric detection for the analysis of gabapentin in human plasma

A simple and sensitive liquid chromatographic method is described for the quantitative analysis of gabapentin in human plasma. Gabapentin (GBP) is an anticonvulsant and widely used in the treatment of epilepsy. No peculiar chromophore is available on gabapentin moiety for direct analysis by absorption spectrophotometry. In human plasma after deproteinisation with acetonitrile, gabapentin was derivatized with a fluorescent reagent, (2-naphthoxy)acetyl chloride (NAC) in borate buffer (pH 10.0). The resulting naphthoxy derivative of gabapentin was separated on a phenyl-hexyl column with a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of sodium acetate buffer (100 mM; pH 5.0)-methanol (32:68, v/v) used in isocratic mode. Using fluorimetric detection (excitation at 225 nm and emission at 360 nm), a low detection limit of about 0.04 μM (S/N = 3, 10 μl injected) was reached. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of the method for intra- and inter- day analyses (n = 5) are between 2.7 and 4.0%, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of gabapentin in plasma from dosed patients for therapeutic drug monitoring.