High-Throughput Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method Validation for the Estimation of Atorvastatin and Active Metabolites in Human Plasma

A highly selective, sensitive, rugged, and rapid ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method (UPLC-MS/MS) is optimized and validated for reliable quantification of atorvastatin (ATR) and its active metabolites, 2-hydroxy atorvastatin (2-ATR) and 4-hydroxy atorvastatin (4-ATR) in human plasma using atorvastatin-D5 (ATR-D5), 2-hydroxy atorvastatin-D5 (2-ATR-D5), and 4-hydroxy atorvastatin-D5 (4-ATR-D5) as deuterium-labeled internal standards (ISTDs), respectively. Isocratic mode chromatographic separation was used with a reverse-phase C18 Symmetry Shield (150 × 4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) column and a mobile phase of acetonitrile:2 mM ammonium formate (pH-3.0) [65:35%v/v] at a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. Electrospray ionization technique with positive ion mode polarity was applied to achieve the best signal intensity and stable response. Solid-phase extraction by direct elution method was applied to extract the drugs from the plasma sample. The calibration curve range was validated from a concentration range of 0.500–250 ng/mL for ATR and 2-ATR and 0.200–20 ng/mL for 4-ATR. The within-batch and between-batch precision and accuracy were found to be consistent and reproducible for all the analytes across the validation. Extraction recoveries were >80% for all analytes and ISTDs. All peaks of analytes and the respective ISTDs were eluted within 5.2 min. In this validated method, selective multivariate analytical approaches were utilized such as best fit linearity range for different strength formulations, preventive measures for in vivo and ex vivo autodegradation of metabolites, and shorter analysis time. This validated method can be useful for challenging quantification of ATR and its active metabolites for therapeutic drug monitoring and in high-throughput clinical study sample analysis.