Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of adefovir in human plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

A selective, rapid and sensitive hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC–MS/MS) method was developed for the first time to determine adefovir in human plasma and applied to a pharmacokinetic study. Plasma samples were prepared by protein precipitation with methanol followed by a further cleaning using dichloromethane. The chromatographic separation was carried out on an ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH HILIC column with the mobile phase of methanol–water–formic acid (85:15:0.2, v/v/v). The detection was performed on a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode via electrospray ionization (ESI) source. The method was rapid with a run time of 3 min per sample. The linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 1.02–102 ng/mL (r2 ≥ 0.99) with the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 1.02 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precision (relative standard deviation, R.S.D.) values were below 12% and the accuracy (relative error, R.E.) was from 0.6% to 3.2% at all quality control (QC) levels. The method was applicable to clinical pharmacokinetic study of adefovir in healthy volunteers after oral administration of adefovir dipivoxil tablet.