High performance liquid chromatography analysis of D-penicillamine by derivatization with N-(1-pyrenyl) maleimide (NPM)

D-Penicillamine (2-amino-3-mercapto-3-methylbutanoic acid), a well-known he avy metal chelator, is the drug of choice in the treatment of Wilson's dise ase and is also effective for the treatment of several disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, primary biliary cirrhosis, scleroderma, fibrotic lung diseases and progressive systemic sclerosis. The method proposed incorpora tes a technique, previously developed in our laboratory, that utilizes the derivatizing agent N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide (NPM) and reversed-phase high-per formance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The coefficients of variation for wi thin-run precision and between-run precision for 500 nM standard D-penicill amine (D-pen) were 2.27% and 2.23%, respectively. Female Sprague-Dawley rat s were given 1 g/kg D-pen i.p. and the amounts of D-pen in liver, kidney, b rain and plasma were subsequently analyzed. This assay is rapid, sensitive and reproducible for determining D-pen in biological samples. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.