Determination and Pharmacokinetic Study of Apatinib in Rat Plasma by UPLC

In this study, a simple, sensitive, and robust analytical method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) has been developed for the determination of apatinib in rat plasma using carbamazepine as internal standard (IS). After sample preparation by a simple liquid-liquid extraction, chromatography was performed on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column (2.1 x 50 mm, 1.7 mu m particle size) and total run time was 2.0 min. The method was linear over the concentration range 5-1000 ng/mL with a lower limit of quantification of 5 ng/mL. Inter-and intraday precision were all within 6.5% and the accuracy was <= 3.5%. Recoveries of apatinib and IS were >80%. Stability studies showed that apatinib was stable under a variety of storage conditions. The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study involving oral administration of apatinib to rats.