Determination of iguratimod in rat plasma by high performance liquid chromatography: method and application

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with UV detection has been developed for the determination of iguratimod (T-614) in rat plasma. Plasma was precipitated with acetonitrile after the addition of the internal standard (IS), N-[4-(2-formylaminoacetyl)-5-methoxy-2-phenoxyphenyl]-methanesulfonamide. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a reversed-phase C(18) column with the mobile phase acetonitrile-acetic acid aqueous solution, pH 4.5 (40:60, v/v), at a flow rate of 1 mL/min, and the UV detection wavelength was set at 257 nm. The calibration curve was linear over the range 0.10-50.0 microg/mL, and the lower limit of quantification was 0.10 microg/mL. The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations were all less than 11.5%. The method has been successfully applied to study the pharmacokinetics of iguratimod in rats. A single 10 mg/kg dose of iguratimod was given to the rats by intragastric administration. The mean maximum plasma concentration of iguratimod for the six rats was 14.5 microg/mL, and the mean elimination half-life of iguratimod was 4.0 h.