Spectrofluorimetric determination of irinotecan in the presence of oxidant agents and metal ions

In this work four spectrofluorimetric methods for the determination of irinotecan (CPT-11) in human urine and pharmaceuticals have been developed. Initially, the fluorescent characteristics of irinotecan (CPT-11) have been studied in both acidic and basic media. Later, the fluorescence emission generated by the oxidation of CPT-11 with several agents was studied. A quenching of fluorescence could be observed in the presence of Ce(IV) and I₂/I⁻. Also, the reaction between several divalent and trivalent metal ions with CPT-11 was studied, and one method in presence of Fe³⁺ was developed since it was the only metal ion that changes the fluorescence of the analyte. The proposed methods present limit of detection comprises between 0.46 and 2.57 ng mL⁻¹. The spectrofluorimetric methods were applied to human urine. No pre-treatment of the sample was necessary, only a dilution 1:20 with water was made. No interference of the matrix was observed in the conditions used. Recoveries were comprises between 100.0 and 104.3%. Also, pharmaceuticals preparations were analyzed with recoveries between 106.7 and 119.7%. The proposed spectrofluorimetric methods were validated by RP-HPLC, obtaining that the oxidation with iodine is the best method to analyze urine samples, while than, the fluorimetric method developed at acidic pH value is the best for the analysis of pharmaceuticals.