Effervescent tablet-assisted deep eutectic solvent based on magnetic nanofluid for liquid phase microextraction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in plasma samples by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Background: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are efficient anti-cancer drugs. The analysis of TKIs in the treatment of cancer is important to achieve the highest anti-cancer effects with minimal toxicities. Herein, we report an efficient effervescent tablet-assisted deep eutectic solvent based on nanofluid (ETA-DES-NF) combined with HPLC-UV for the determination of three anti-cancer drugs (erlotinib, imatinib, and nilotinib) in human plasma samples.

Methods: In this method, a magnetic nanofluid composed of deep eutectic solvent (DES) and FeO@SiO nanoparticles was used as an extraction solvent. The deep eutectic solvent acted as a carrier and stabilizer for FeO@SiO nanoparticles. A tablet was used in the nanofluid for dispersion. The effervescent tablet was implemented to generate in situ CO and provide the effective dispersion of the sorbent into the sample solution for diminishing the extraction time and improving the extraction efficiency. Moreover, the magnetic nanofluid enhanced phase separation efficiency without centrifugation to collect the organic solvent.

Results: The synthesized nanofluid was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The impact of main parameters, including the type and volume of DES, the composition of the tablet, the composition of the nanofluid and the composition of eluent, were optimized. According to the optimized conditions, the limits of detection (LODs) and the limits of quantitation (LOQs) were from 0.5-0.8 to 1.5-2.4 μg L for imatinib, erlotinib, and nilotinib, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations (RSD% n = 5) were determined to be 3.1-5% and 6.4-7.5%, respectively.

Conclusions: The developed method displayed high sensitivity, low consumption of solvent, low cost, simplicity, high recoveries, short extraction time, and good repeatability for determination of three anti-cancer drugs in human plasma samples.