Bioanalytical Method for Carbocisteine in Human Plasma by Using LC-MS/MS: A Pharmacokinetic Application

A simple, sensitive, and selective LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the quantification of carbocisteine in human plasma. Rosiglitazone was used as the internal standard and heparin was used as the anticoagulant. The chromatographic separation was performed by using the Waters Symmetry Shield RP 8, 150 x 3.9 mm, 5 μm column at 40°C with a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of methanol and 0.5% formic acid solution in a 40:60 proportion. The flow rate was 500 μl/min along with a 5 μl injection volume. Protein precipitation was used as the extraction method. Mass spectrometric data were detected in positive ion mode. The MRM mode of the ions for carbocisteine was 180.0 > 89.0 and for rosiglitazone it was 238.1 > 135.1. The method was validated in the concentration curve range of 50.000 ng/mL to 6000.000 ng/mL. The retention times of carbocisteine and the internal standard rosiglitazone were approximately 2.20 and 3.01 min, respectively. The overall run time was 4.50 min. This method was found suitable to analyze human plasma samples for the application in pharmacokinetic and BA/BE studies.