Microextraction by Packed Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Combined Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography for the Determination of Levofloxacin in Human Plasma

Abstract EN

Fluoroquinolones are considered as gold standard for the prevention of bacterial infections.

To improve assessment of antibacterial efficacy, a novel method for determination of levofloxacin was developed and validated.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as only green solvent were used as a porogen for preparation of water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with a pseudotemplate.

The DESs-MIPs were characterized in detail, including scanning electron microscope, nitrogen sorption porosimetry, and Fourier transform-infrared spectra.

Clearly, the maximum binding capacity of levofloxacin on DESs-MIPs in water and methanol was 0.216 and 0.077 μmol g−1, respectively.

The DESs-MIPs as adsorbing materials were applied in microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS), and the DESs-MIPs-MEPS conditions were optimized.

The DESs-MIPs-MEPS coupled with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) was used to determine levofloxacin in human plasma.

The method was found linear over 0.05–10 μg mL−1 with coefficient of correlation equal to 0.9988.

The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 0.012 and 0.04 μg mL−1, respectively.

At three spiked levels, the precision of proposed method was between 95.3% and 99.7% with intraday and interday relative standard deviations ≤8.9%.

Finally, the developed method was used to examine levofloxacin from human plasma of 20 hospitalized patients after transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy, and the average concentration (±SD) of levofloxacin was 2.35 ± 0.99 μg mL−1 in plasma.