Determination of aditoprim and its oxidative metabolites in plasma and microsomal incubation mixtures by high-performance liquid chromatography.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method is presented for the determination of aditoprim (ADP) and its two oxidative metabolites in biological fluids including sheep plasma and the incubation medium of liver microsomes. The compounds were separated using a highly deactivated C18 column; the mobile phase consisted of an 0.05 M phosphate buffer (pH 6) and acetonitrile in a ratio of 90:10 (v/v). The eluate was quantified by ultraviolet detection at 230 nm. Calibration curves were linear from 0.25 to 5 micrograms/ml. The limit of detection was 0.05 microgram/ml. In an in vivo kinetic study in sheep, N-monodesmethyl-ADP and N-didesmethyl-ADP appeared to be equally important metabolites. In contrast, in in vitro metabolism studies using liver microsomes from different animal species including sheep, N-didesmethyl-ADP was formed predominantly.