Determination of 2-chloro-2'-deoxyadenosine in human plasma.

The first high performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of the plasma concentration of 2-chloro-2'-deoxyadenosine (CdA) in patients, which is significantly more sensitive than the previously used RIA method, is presented. CdA is a purine analogue with useful clinical activity against lymphoproliferative disorders and it has recently been found to be the single most active agent in the treatment of hairy cell leukaemia. Guaneran (6-nitroimidazol-6-thioguanine) was added to 1 mL plasma as the internal standard and CdA was extracted using ethyl acetate. A Perkin-Elmer C18, 3 mu, 8 cm column was used for the separation of CdA and the internal standard from endogenous compounds in the sample with a mixture of sodium phosphate buffer 10 mM, methanol and acetonitrile (85:10:5, pH = 3.0) as the mobile phase. The sensitivity of the method (1 nM) allows the determination of CdA in plasma 24 h after the administration of 0.14 mg/kg as a 2 h infusion.