High-throughput identification and determination of aminoglycoside antibiotics in human plasma using UPLC-Q-ToF-MS

Aminoglycosides are a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics with several clinical uses. Owing to the ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity of aminoglycosides, therapeutic drug monitoring is required. This study aimed to devise a high-throughput method for identification and quantitative determination of aminoglycoside antibiotics in human plasma samples using ultra-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (UPLC–Q-ToF-MS). Plasma samples (100 µL) spiked with five aminoglycosides (streptomycin, spectinomycin, amikacin, kanamycin, and gentamycin) and an internal standard (ribostamycin) were diluted and centrifuged in aqueous formic acid and acetonitrile. The clear supernatant extract was evaporated and reconstituted in the mobile phase, of which 4 µL was subjected to UPLC–Q-ToF-MS. Prominent peaks were observed for the drugs within 3 min. The recoveries of five aminoglycosides from plasma samples were 92.6–120%. The regression equations showed excellent linearity (0.9999 ≥ r2 ≥ 0.9987) within the range of 1.0–100 µg/mL, and detection limits of 0.5–2.0 µg/mL. The coefficients of the intra- and inter-day variations for five drugs were less than 11.8%, while the accuracy of quantitation was in the range of 89–111%. In this study, a novel method was presented for identification and determination of aminoglycosides in human plasma samples using UPLC–Q-ToF-MS analysis. This method can be applied to high-throughput analysis used for clinical and environmental purposes.