Determination of 3 '-azido-2 ',3 '-dideoxyuridine in maternal plasma, amniotic fluid, fetal and placental tissues by high-performance liquid chromatography

3'-Azido-2',3 '-dideoxyuridine (AZDU, Azddu, CS-87) is a nucleoside analog of 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (zidovudine, AZT) that has been shown to inhi bit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). AZDU is a potential candidate for treatment of pregnant mothers to prevent prenatal transmission of HIV/AIDS to their unborn children. A rapid and efficient highperformance liquid chr omatography (HPLC) method for the determination of AZDU concentrations in r at maternal plasma, amniotic fluid, placental and fetal tissue samples has been developed and validated. Tissue samples were homogenized in distilled water, protein precipitated and extracted using a C-18 solid-phase extracti on (SPE) method prior to analysis. Plasma and amniotic fluid samples were p rotein precipitated with 2 M perchloric acid prior to analysis. Baseline re solution was achieved using a 4.5% acetonitrile in 40 mM sodium acetate (pH 7) buffer mobile phase for amniotic fluid, placenta and fetus samples and with a 5.5% acetonitrile in buffer solution for plasma at flow-rates of 2.0 ml/min. The HPLC system consists of a Hypersil ODS column (150x4.6 mm) wit h a Nova-Pak C-18 guard column with detection at 263 nm. The method yields retention times of 6.2 and 12.2 min for AZDU and AZT in plasma and 8.3 and 17.6 min for AZDU and AZT in amniotic fluid, fetal and placental tissues. L imits of detection ranged from 0.01 to 0.075 mug/ml. Recoveries ranged from 81 to 96% for AZDU and from 82 to 96% for AZT in the different matrices. I ntra-day (n=6) and inter-day (n=9) precision (% RSD) and accuracy (% Error) ranged from 1.48 to 6.25% and from 0.50 to 10.07%, respectively. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.