Determination of plasma tenofovir concentrations using a conventional LC-MS method

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biomedical Science

Background:

• Tenofovir is a vital nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor used daily for HIV treatment.
• Increased tenofovir usage necessitates accurate quantification in human plasma.
• Traditional HPLC methods face challenges due to interfering peaks, limiting tenofovir detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a rapid and conventional LC-MS method for tenofovir quantification in human plasma.
• To establish a reliable analytical technique for therapeutic drug monitoring of tenofovir.

Main Methods:

• Development of a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) assay.
• Validation of the method for precision and accuracy in inter- and intraday analyses.
• Analysis of tenofovir in human plasma samples within a concentration range of 0.019-1.567 µg/mL.

Main Results:

• The LC-MS method demonstrated linearity across the tested concentration range.
• Average accuracy ranged from 95.9% to 100.7%.
• Inter- and intraday relative standard deviations were below 11.6%, with tenofovir recovery exceeding 80.2%.

Conclusions:

• A novel, rapid, and conventional LC-MS method for tenofovir determination in human plasma has been successfully developed.
• This validated method provides accurate and precise quantification, addressing limitations of previous analytical techniques.
• The established LC-MS assay is suitable for routine clinical and research applications involving tenofovir plasma level monitoring.