Concurrent detection of cabozantinib as an anticancer agent and its major metabolites in human serum using fluorescence-coupled micellar liquid chromatography

• Main Authors: Xiurong Qi, Shuping Zhang, Mei Yu, Suliman Khan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-07-01
• Series: Arabian Journal of Chemistry
• Subjects: Cabozantinib; Metabolites; Micellar chromatography; Fluorescence detection; Cetyltrimethylammonium bromid
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878535221002215

A novel, highly sensitive, simple, and rapid strategy was designed and developed for simultaneous determination of cabozantinib (CBZ) as an anticancer agent and its main metabolites including monohydroxy sulfate (EXEL-1646), N-oxide (EXEL-5162(, amide cleavage product (EXEL-5366), and 6-desmethyl amide cleavage product sulfate) EXEL-1644). Measurements were done through a micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) method coupled with fluorescence detection. The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was performed using a Kinetex C18 100 Å column as well as acetonitrile, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB; 0.2 mol.L−1), and tris buffer (pH 8.5) solutions as the mobile phase at a 40:50:10 (v/v) ratio. The method’s linearity (20 to 700 ng.mL−1), limit of detection (LOD; 2.11 to 3.69 ng.mL−1), limit of quantification (LOQ; 20 to 30 ng.mL−1), intra- and inter-day precisions (RSD < 4.00%), selectivity, recovery, and robustness were fully evaluated. According to the obtained results, the developed method can be used for simple and rapid (~35 min) quantification of CBZ as an anticancer drug and its major metabolites in human serum samples with high sensitivity and low cost.