Quadruple isotope dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after simultaneous derivatization and spraying based fine droplet formation liquid phase microextraction method for the accurate and sensitive quantification of chloroquine phosphate in human serum, urine and saliva samples at trace levels.

This study presents an accurate and precise analytical strategy for the determination of chloroquine phosphate at trace levels in human body fluids (urine, serum, and saliva). Simultaneous derivatization-spraying based fine droplet formation-liquid phase microextraction (SD-SFDF-LPME) method was used to derivatize and preconcentrate the analyte prior to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) measurements. Acetic anhydride was employed as derivatizing agent in this study. After optimizing the SD-SFDF-LPME method, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were found to be 0.16 and 0.53 mg/kg, respectively. Quadruple isotope dilution (ID4) was coupled to the SD-SFDF-LPME method in order to alleviate matrix effects and promote accuracy/precision of the method. Chloroquine acetamide-d3 was firstly synthesized in our research laboratory and used as the isotopic analogue of the analyte in the ID4 experiments. Superior percent recovery results (99.4% - 101.0%) with low standard deviation values were obtained for the spiked samples. This validated the developed SD-SFDF-LPME-ID4-GC-MS method as highly accurate and precise for the determination of chloroquine phosphate at trace levels. In addition, the isotopic analogue of the analyte was obtained via the acetamide derivative of the analyte, which is an alternative to obtain isotopic analogues of organic compounds that are not accessible or commercially available.