An LC-MS-MS method for the determination of nevirapine, a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, in human plasma

A sensitive and rapid liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method has been developed to measure the levels of the HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor nevirapine (NVP) in human plasma. The analyte and internal standard (IS) are isolated from plasma by a simple perchloric acid precipitation of plasma proteins followed by centrifugation. LC-MS-MS in positive mode used pairs of ions at m/= of 267/226 for NVP and 628/421 for the IS, respectively. Two linear calibration curves were established for quantitation of NVP with the low curve ranging from 25 to 1000 ng/ml and the high curve ranging from 1000 to 10 000 ng/ml. Mean inter- and intra-assay coefficients of variation (CVs) over the ranges of the two standard curves were less than 10%. The overall recovery of NVP was 92.4%. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.