Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for simultaneous determination of antidiabetic drugs metformin and glyburide in human plasma

A simple and rapid liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitation of antidiabetic drugs metformin and glyburide in human plasma using glimepiride as internal standard (IS). After acidic acetonitrile-induced protein precipitation of the plasma samples, metformin, glyburide and IS were chromatographed on reverse phase C18 (50 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) analytical column. Quantitation was performed on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer employing electrospray ionization technique and operating in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and positive ion mode. The total chromatographic run time was 3.5 min and calibration curves were linear over the concentration range of 20–2500 ng/ml for metformin and 5–500 ng/ml for glyburide. The method was validated for selectivity, sensitivity, recovery, linearity, accuracy and precision, dilution integrity and stability studies. The recoveries obtained for the analytes and IS (≥69%) were consistent and reproducible. Inter-batch and intra-batch coefficient of variation across four validation runs (LLOQ, LQC, MQC and HQC) was less than 8%. The accuracy determined at these levels was within ±8% in terms of relative error (RE). The method was applied to a bioequivalence study of 500 mg metformin and 5 mg of glyburide tablet after oral administration to 28 healthy human subjects under condition of fasting.