Rapid quantitative analysis of clarithromycin in rat plasma by UPLC–MS/MS after intravenous injection of the clarithromycin-loaded ultrafine PLGA nanoparticles

Nanoparticles were designed to encapsulate drugs to alter their pharmacological behaviors, therefore, it is very essential to monitor the pharmacokinetic profile of drug encapsulated in nanoparticles in order to clarify and predict their efficacy and side effects. In this paper, we reported a simple, rapid μ-elution 96-well solid phase extraction (μSPE) method combining with ultra high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) for determination of nanoformulated drug in rat plasma. This method presented satisfactory results in terms of sensitivity, precision, accuracy, and recovery, for the first time, of quantitatively analyzing clarithromycin (CLA) in rat plasma after intravenous administration CLA-loaded ultrafine PLGA nanoparticles for pharmacokinetic study. This method has been proved to be fast, reliable and reproducible to accurately analyze drug encapsulated in polymeric nanoparticles sample for a pharmacokinetic study.

► A rapid UPLC–MS/MS-based method for analyzing plasma clarithromycin was developed.
► Clarithromycin loaded in ultrafine PLGA nanoparticles was synthesized.
► Rat plasma pharmacokinetic profile for nanoformulated clarithromycin was obtained.