Development and validation of a non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of imatinib, codeine and morphine in human urine

Abstract

A non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) method that separates a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, imatinib, together with its main metabolite and two analgesics, codeine and morphine, from human urine is proposed. After a solid phase extraction step in urine, the four drugs were separated through a fused-silica capillary at 22 kV and 25 °C and detected at 207 nm. For this purpose 15 mM ammonium acetate and 1% acetic acid in methanol were used as the background electrolyte. Detection limits of 130 and 80 μg L⁻¹ for imatinib and its metabolite and 40 and 60 μg L⁻¹ for codeine and morphine were obtained. According to the validation study, the developed method was proved to be accurate, precise, sensitive and specific. The developed method is simple, rapid and sensitive and has been used to determine imatinib, codeine and their metabolites at clinically relevant levels in human urine from different patients under leukemia or analgesic treatment.