Molecularly imprinted polymer cartridges coupled on-line with high performance liquid chromatography for simple and rapid analysis of dextromethorphan in human plasma samples

In this paper, a novel method is described for automated determination of dextromethorphan in biological fluids using molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) as a sample clean-up technique combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, chloroform as porogen and dextromethorphan as template molecule. These imprinted polymers were used as solid-phase extraction sorbent for the extraction of dextromethorphan from human plasma samples. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the MIP cartridges were evaluated. The high selectivity of the sorbent coupled to the high performance liquid chromatographic system permitted a simple and rapid analysis of this drug in plasma samples with limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 0.12 ng/mL and 0.35 ng/mL, respectively. The MIP selectivity was evaluated by analyzing of the dextromethorphan in presence of several substances with similar molecular structures and properties. Results from the HPLC analyses showed that the recoveries of dextromethorphan using MIP cartridges from human plasma samples in the range of 1–50 ng/mL were higher than 87%.