Determination of Amifostine and WR1065 in Rat Plasma by CE with Amperometric Detection

A method based on capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection (CE–AD) was developed for the determination of amifostine (a cytoprotective agent, WR2721) and 2-(3-aminopropylamino)ethanethiol) (WR1065, the active metabolite of WR2721) in rat plasma. The contents of WR1065 and amifostine were determined by measuring WR1065 in deproteinized rat plasma using CE–AD before and after it was incubated at 37 °C for 4 h in acidic solution, respectively. During the incubation, amifostine was quantitatively converted to WR1065. In addition, cysteine and uric acid in rat plasma were also determined simultaneously. The detection electrode was a 500 μm diameter platinum disc electrode at a detection potential of +1.0 V (vs. saturated calomel electrode). The analytes can be well separated within 9 min in a 50-cm-long fused-silica capillary at a separation voltage of 18 kV in a 100 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.5). The relation between peak current and analyte concentration was linear over about 3 orders of magnitude with the limits of quantification (S/N = 3) ranging from 0.60 to 1.40 μM. The method has been validated. Satisfactory within-day and between-day precisions were obtained with relative standard deviations of ≤4.9 and ≤5.1 % for WR1065 and ≤5.0 and ≤5.3 % for amifostine, respectively. The within-day and between-day accuracy was in the range of 98.6–102.3 % and 95.7–97.2 % for WR1065 and 97.5–98.6 and 95.3–97.1 % for amifostine, respectively.