Rapid and sensitive method for simultaneous determination of first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs in human plasma by HPLC-MS/MS: Application to therapeutic drug monitoring

First-line anti-tuberculosis drugs are playing vital roles for curbing rapid spread of tuberculosis. Multidrug therapies are commonly applied in clinical to achieve better treatment outcomes. However, drug resistance and adverse reactions come along with this therapies and therapeutic drug monitoring is a feasible way to precaution them. For this reasons, a simple and sensitive method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and single protein precipitation was developed and validated for simultaneously quantifying of pyrazinamide, isoniazid, ethambutol, streptomycin and rifampicin in human plasma. Optimized chromatographic separation was achieved on a ZORBAX SB-C18 column with heptafluorobutyric acid, an ion-pair reagent, in the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The mass detection was achieved using electrospray ionization in the positive ion mode with a multiple reaction monitoring mode. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) and dynamic range of pyrazinamide, isoniazid, ethambutol, streptomycin and rifampicin were 200-4000 ng/mL, 80-2000 ng/mL, 0.2-1000 ng/mL, 2000-200000 ng/mL and 200-4000 ng/mL, respectively. The Inter-day and intra-day accuracy and precision were within +/- 15.0% and less than 15%. The method had been successfully applied to simultaneous determination of four first-line Anti-tuberculosis drugs in plasma from tuberculosis patients.