Development and validation of a new reversed-phase ion pairing liquid chromatographic method with fluorescence detection for penciclovir analysis in plasma and aqueous humor

A simple, sensitive and reliable HPLC ion-pairing method with fluorescence detection, was developed for penciclovir determination in plasma and aqueous humor, with a Zorbax SB-aq C18 (100 mmx2.1 mm) column. Plasma samples were treated by solid-phase extraction with Oasis MCX (30 mg) cartridges. Ganciclovir, an antiviral drug structurally related to penciclovir, was used as internal standard (I.S.). Aqueous humor samples were directly injected into the chromatographic system. Separation was performed by a gradient elution with a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of acetonitrile and phosphate buffer 50mM containing 5mM of sodium octanesulfonate, pH 2.0, at a flow rate of 0.3 ml/min. The method was validated and showed good performances in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision and trueness. Quantification limit was obtained at 0.05 microg/ml for aqueous humor and at 0.1 microg/ml for plasma. Finally, the proposed analytical method was used to measure penciclovir in clinical samples for a pharmacokinetic study, after oral administration of famciclovir.