Determination of a new atypical antipsychotic agent perospirone and its metabolite in human plasma by automated column-switching high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple and sensitive column-switching high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with fluorescence detection is described for the quantification of perospirone, a serotonin and dopamine antagonist, and its metabolite ID-15036 in human plasma. The test compounds were extracted from 2 ml of plasma using chloroform–hexane (30:70, v/v) and the extract was injected into a column I (TSK-PW precolumn, 10 μm, 35×4.6 mm I.D.) for clean-up and column II (C18 STR ODS-II analytical column, 5 μm, 150×4.6 mm I.D.) for separation. The peak was detected using a fluorescence detector set at Ex 315 nm and Em 405 nm, and the total time for a chromatographic separation was ∼30 min. The method was validated for the concentration range from 0.1 to 100 ng/ml. Mean recoveries were 97% for perospirone and 96% for ID-15036. Intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations were less than 2.8 and 5.3% for perospirone and 2.4 and 4.4% for ID-15036, respectively, at the concentration range from 0.3 to 30 ng/ml. This method shows good specificity with respect to commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs, and it could be successfully applied for pharmacokinetic studies and therapeutic drug monitoring.