Enhancement in recovery of drugs with high protein binding efficiency from human plasma using magnetic nanoparticles.

In this paper, we propose an alternate method for bioanalytical extraction of drugs from human plasma samples using bare magnetic nanoparticles. The magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were used for deproteination of biological samples that further assist in extraction of plasma bound drugs for bioanalytical studies. The method uses basic solvents (ethanol, methanol, etc.) rather than the expensive and toxic solvents. The MNPs provide several advantages like avoiding the use of centrifuge machine, and making extraction time effective. The average time involved for the sample preparation is around 30-40min. The developed method was examined for seven different drugs having moderate (40-70%) to high (>80%) plasma protein binding efficiency. The present study focuses on the principle of magnetic nanoparticle based extraction of drug that binds with the plasma protein. In calcitriol (protein binding efficiency >99%), it was observed that the drug extraction efficiency could be enhanced by 16% using the present method. However, we assume that still there is a scope for improving the extraction efficiency by optimizing proper solvent for the specific drug. The use of magnetic nanoparticles makes the extraction cost effective and quick with improved efficiency.