Quantitative determination of buprenorphine in human urine by high performance liquid chromatography: Application of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles for dispersive solid phase microextraction

A novel, selective, simple, available while reliable method was developed and validated for quantitation of buprenorphine (Bup) as a model of highly lipophilic drug in human urine samples. Bup a semi – synthetic opioid, has been widely used for treatment of chronic pain and for maintenance therapy for opioid addiction [1]. The quantitative determination of Bup concentration in human urine or plasma is problematic, thus necessitating sophisticated and expensive techniques like LC-MS and GC-MS [2-4]. So the lack of available techniques is obvious.The method is based on a rapid and easy dispersive solid phase microextraction (DSPME) using magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (MMIPNPs) made of magnetite (Fe3O4) core surrounded by polyamidoamine and Bup as template, followed by high performance liquid chromatographic analysis with fluorescence detector (HPLC-FL). The prepared MMIPNPs adsorbent was characterized by TEM, FT-IR, and TGA. TEM images show that the Fe3O4 nanoparticles are well-enwrapped by MIP layer.Buprenorphine could be quantitatively extracted using 3 mg MMIPNPs and sample s pH adjustment and the whole extracted analyte could be easily desorbed with mixture of methanol and NaOH before injection to HPLC-FL. A linear regression was found within the drug concentration range of 1to1000 ng/ml with R2 of 0.9985 for a typical calibration curve. The relative recovery of buprenorphine was 98-100% throughout the concentration range tested. Within-run and between-run variations were less than 10% for most concentration series within the linear range tested. Remarkably high sensitivity of 0.21 ng/ml and 0.71 ng/ml was obtained as limit of detection and a limit of quantification, respectivelyThis method, having excellence performance as well as validity is suggested strongly to be used in biomedical applications considering its ease of preparation and application while showing remarkable analysis validation data comparable to those reported for the sophisticated methods such as LC-MS or GC-MS.