Determination and pharmacokinetics study of oxyclozanide suspension in cattle by LC-MS/MS

Abstract Background Oxyclozanide is an anthelmintic drug that is widely used to treat fasciolosis. However, the pharmacokinetics of oxyclozanide in cattle are not yet clearly understood. The present study was designed to develop a sensitive method to determine oxyclozanide levels in cattle plasma using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) and to study its pharmacokinetics for application in cattle. Results A simple and rapid HPLC-MS/MS analytical method was established and validated to quantify oxyclozanide levels in cattle plasma using niclosamide as the internal standard (IS) in negative ion mode. Chromatographic separation of the analytes was achieved using a C18 analytical column (75 × 4.6 mm, 2.7 μm) at 30 °C. The mobile phase comprised 0.01% v/v acetic acid (HOAc) diluted in water:acetonitrile (MeCN) (90:10% v/v) and 5 mM ammonium formate in methanol (MeOH):MeCN (75:25, v/v) at a 10:90 ratio (v/v) and was delivered at a flow rate of 0.4 mL min− 1. A good linear response across the concentration range of 0.02048–25.600 μg/mL was achieved (r2 = 0.994). The method was validated with respect to linearity, matrix effect, accuracy, precision, recovery and stability. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 0.020 μg/mL, and the extraction recovery was > 98% for oxyclozanide. The inter- and intra-day accuracy and precision of the method showed the relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 10%. The method was successfully applied to an assessment of the pharmacokinetics of oxyclozanide in cattle plasma. In healthy cattle, a single oral dose of an oxyclozanide suspension followed the one-compartment model, with a half-life (T1/2) of 64.40 ± 30.18 h, a plasma clearance rate (CL/F) of 11.426 ± 2.442 mL/h/kg, and an average area under the curve (AUC) of 965.608 ± 220.097 h*μg/mL. The peak concentration (Cmax) was 15.870 ± 2.855 μg/mL, which occurred at a peak time (Tmax) = 22.032 ± 3.343 h. Conclusions A reliable, accurate HPLC-MS/MS analytical method was established in our study and successful applied to study the pharmacokinetics of oxyclozanide in cattle plasma. These results will be useful for further evaluations of the pharmacokinetic properties of oxyclozanide or for monitoring therapeutic drugs in animals.