Quantification of daunorubicin and daunorubicinol in plasma by capillary electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) with laser-induced fluorescence detection wa s applied to quantify daunorubicin and daunorubicinol in plasma. Separation was carried out in a 47 cm x 50 Ccm I.D. fused-silica capillary, with a ru nning buffer, pH 5 containing 60 muM spermine and 70% acetonitrile. Sample preparation was done either by protein precipitation with acetonitrile or b y liquid-liquid extraction. The assay can be applied in a concentration ran ge from 40 mg/l down to 2 mug/l for daunorubicin and from 1 mg/l to 2 mug/l for daunorubicinol. Precision and accuracy were between 2.9 and 14.5% (n=6 ) on 1 day and between 1.0 and 14.7% from day to day (n=6) for both analyte s. Thus, the CE method enables precise and accurate quantification of dauno rubicin and daunorubicinol in small sample volumes over a wide concentratio n range. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.