Biodetermination of N-(deacetyl-O-4-vinblastoyl-23)-L-tryptophan, a metabolite of vintriptol, by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection.

The determination of N-(deacetyl-O-4-vinblastoyl-23)-L-tryptophan (vintriptol acid, VtrpA), a metabolite of the investigational semi-synthetic vinca alkaloid vintriptol [N-(deacetyl-O-4-vinblastoyl-23)-L-ethyltryptophan, VtrpE], in plasma and urine samples is described. Sample pretreatment included liquid-liquid extraction of the buffered (pH 5.0) biological samples with chloroform-2-propanol (95:5, v/v). The analyses were performed by ion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography on normal-phase silica with fluorescence detection. The assay was applied to the analysis of samples from cancer patients who had been treated with VtrpE in a phase I clinical study. VtrpA was found to be a principal metabolite of VtrpE with up to 1.2% of the administered dose excreted in the urine.