Simultaneous determination of the six HIV protease inhibitors (amprenavir, indinavir, lopinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir, and saquinavir) plus M8 nelfinavir metabolite and the nonnucleoside reverse transcription inhibitor efavirenz in human plasma by solid-phase extraction and column liquid chromatography.

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatographic assay has been developed for the determination of the six currently protease inhibitors approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (amprenavir, indinavir, lopinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir, and saquinavir) plus the M8 active metabolite of nelfinavir and the nonnucleoside reverse transcription inhibitor efavirenz in a single run. Pretreatment of 1-mL plasma sample spiked with internal standard was made by a solid-phase extraction procedure using a polymeric reversed-phase sorbent. Liquid chromatography was performed using a narrow-bore C18 reversed-phase column and gradient elution. Double ultraviolet detection at 265 nm (amprenavir) and at 210 nm (all other assayed drugs and internal standard) was used. Calibration curves were linear in the range 25 to 10,000 ng/mL, and the assay has been validated over the range 25 to 5,000 ng/mL. Average accuracies at four concentrations were in the range 92.4% to 103.0% and 94.4% to 103.0% for within-day and between-day, respectively, and the coefficients of variation were less than 8%. Mean absolute recoveries varied from 72.8% (ritonavir) to 93.7% (indinavir). No metabolite of the protease inhibitors was found to coelute with the drugs of interest or with the internal standard. At this time, among the tested drugs, especially all the currently licensed nucleosides and the other nonnucleoside reverse transcription inhibitor nevirapine that can be used in combination with the protease inhibitors, none was found to interfere with the assay.