Detection of donepezil concentration in serum by solid-phase extraction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based on magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer

Abstract

Donepezil is a drug used to treat Alzheimer's disease, and its efficacy is closely related to the concentration of the drug in the serum. Therefore, monitoring the concentration of donepezil in the serum is crucial for evaluating the treatment effect and avoiding adverse reactions. In this study, a new method for determining the concentration of donepezil in serum was established by combining magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology. The prepared magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to confirm that the polymer had effective imprinting and good magnetic responsivity. The adsorption experiment showed that the MMIPs had a saturated adsorption capacity of 15.4 mg/g for donepezil and the adsorption behavior followed the quasi-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption of donepezil by MMIPs was a chemical adsorption process. Finally, by combining LC-MS/MS technology, the method successfully achieved rapid, high selectivity, and high specificity separation and enrichment detection of donepezil in serum. The linear range of the method for donepezil in serum was 25-200 ng/mL, the lowest detection limit was 0.33 ng/mL, the recovery was 98.7-102.6%, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.2%-4.5% (n=3). The experiment confirmed that the method is simple and effective for detecting donepezil in serum.