Simultaneous determination of doxorubicin and curcumin in rat plasma by LC–MS/MS and its application to pharmacokinetic study

• We first reported a method for the simultaneous determination of doxorubicin and curcumin in rat plasma.
• The method has a good specificity, sensitivity and a short run time.
• It is the first pharmacokinetic study concerning coadministration of doxorubicin and curcumin in rat.
• Significant differences of plasma concentration of doxorubicin were observed between the single group and combined group.

A specific, sensitive and rapid liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of doxorubicin and curcumin in rat plasma after intravenous administration. The analytes of doxorubicin and curcumin were extracted with methanol precipitation using glibenclamide as internal standard (IS). The chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 column with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid water as mobile phase and with gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Calibration curves were linear over the ranges of 2–8000 ng/mL for doxorubicin and 5–2000 ng/mL for curcumin (r > 0.99). The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 2 ng/mL for DOX and 5 ng/mL for Cur. Finally, this developed method was successfully applied in the pharmacokinetic study of doxorubicin and curcumin in rats and evaluated the effects of curcumin on the absorption of doxorubicin after intravenous administration.

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