Quantitation of tadalafil in human plasma by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization

A simple, rapid, sensitive and specific liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for quantitation of tadalafil (I) in human plasma, a new selective, reversible phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor. The analyte and internal standard (sildenafil, II) were extracted by liquid–liquid extraction with diethyl ether/dichloromethane (70/30, v/v) using a Glas-Col Multi-Pulse Vortexer. The chromatographic separation was performed on reverse phase Xterra MS C18 column with a mobile phase of 10 mM ammonium formate/acetonitrile (10/90, v/v, pH adjusted to 3.0 with formic acid). The protonate of analyte was quantitated in positive ionization by multiple reaction monitoring with a mass spectrometer. The mass transitions m/z 390.4 → 268.0 and m/z 475.5 → 58.3 were used to measure I and II, respectively. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 10–1000 ng/mL for tadalafil in human plasma. The lower limit of quantitation was 10 ng/mL with a relative standard deviation of less than 15%. Acceptable precision and accuracy were obtained for concentrations over the standard curve ranges. Run time of 1.2 min for each sample made it possible to analyze a throughput of more than 400 human plasma samples per day. The validated method has been successfully used to analyze human plasma samples for application in pharmacokinetic, bioavailability or bioequivalence studies.