Quantitative Analysis of Racecadotril Metabolite in Human Plasma Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Orally administered racedotril is rapidly hydrolysed to the more potent enkephalinase inhibitor thiorphan in vivo. A sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to quantify thiorphan in human plasma using lisinopril as the internal standard. After a simple protein precipitation with methanol, the post-treatment samples were analyzed on a CN column interfaced with a tripe-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer using negative electrospray ionization. The method was validated to demonstrate the specificity, lower limit of quantification, accuracy, and precision of measurements. The assay was linear over the concentration range 9.38～600 ng/mL using a 5 μL aliquot of plasma. The correlation coefficients for the calibration curves ranged from 0.998 5 to 0.999 5. The intra-and inter-day precisions over the entire concentration were not more than 6.33%. Methanol and water (35∶65, v/v)is used as the isocratic mobile phase, with 0.1% of formic acid in water. The method was successfully applied for pharmacokinetic study after a single oral administration of 200 mg racecadotril to 20 healthy volunteers.