Determination of gabapentin in human plasma by capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection and acetonitrile stacking technique

A sensitive analytical method for gabapentin [1-(aminomethyl) cyclohexaneacetic acid] (GBP) in human plasma based on capillary electrophoretic separation and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection has been developed. 6-Carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) was used for precolumn derivatization of the non-fluorescent drug in plasma. Optimal separation and detection were obtained with an electrophoretic buffer of 50 mM sodium borate (pH 9.5) and an air-cooled argon-ion laser (excitation at 488 nm, emission at 520 nm). A calibration curve ranging from 0.3 to 150 μM was shown to be linear. The concentration limit of detection (LOD) in plasma was 60 nM. We also demonstrate how the detection limit can be enhanced by using acetonitrile stacking technique. With stacking, the limit of detection for gabapentin in plasma was 4.8 nM. A calibration curve ranging from 0.03 to 15 μM was shown to be linear. Both the within-day and day-to-day reproducibility and accuracy were ≤10.8 and 6.0%, respectively.