Development and validation of a highly sensitive method for the determination of abiraterone in rat and human plasma by LC-MS/MS-ESI: application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A highly sensitive, rapid assay method has been developed and validated for the estimation of abiraterone (ART) in rat and human plasma with liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization in the positive-ion mode. The assay procedure involves extraction of ART and phenacetin (internal standard, IS) from rat and human plasma with a simple protein precipitation extraction process. Chromatographic separation was achieved using an isocratic mobile (10 mm ammonium acetate:acetonitrile, 10:90, v/v) at a flow-rate of 0.70 mL/min on an Atlantis dC(18) column maintained at 40 °C with a total run time of 3.5 min. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were 350.3 → 156.0 for ART and 180.2 → 110.1 for IS. Method validation was performed as per FDA guidelines and the results met the acceptance criteria. The lower limit of quantitation achieved was 0.20 ng/mL and the linearity range extended from 0.20 to 201 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions were in the ranges 2.39-10.4 and 4.84-9.53% in rat plasma and 3.82-10.8 and 6.97-8.94% in human plasma.