Quantification of montelukast,a selective cysteinyl leukotriene receptor (CysLT1) antagonist in human plasma by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry: validation and its application to a human pharmacokinetic study

A highly sensitive, rapid assay method has been developed and validated for the estimation of montelukast (MTK) in human plasma with liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with electro spray ionization in the positive‐ion mode. Liquid–liquid extraction was used to extract MTK and amlodipine (internal standard, IS) from human plasma. Chromatographic separation was achieved with 10 mm ammonium acetate (pH 6.4): acetonitrile (15:85, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.50 mL/min on a Discovery HS C₁₈ column with a total run time of 3.5 min. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were 586.10 → 422.10 for MTK and 409.20 → 238.30 for IS. Method validation and clinical sample analysis were performed as per FDA guidelines and the results met the acceptance criteria. The lower limit of quantitation achieved was 0.25 ng/mL and linearity was observed from 0.25 to 800 ng/mL. The intra‐day and inter‐day precisions were 5.97–8.33 and 7.09–10.13%, respectively. This novel method has been applied to a pharmacokinetic study of MTK in humans. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.