Epirubicin, commonly used as anticancer drug for various types of tumors like breast, liver, lung, stomach, ovaries, and bladder for its improved antitumor efficacy and safety. A rapid, sensitive, and reliable bioanalytical method was developed and validated for epirubicin using conventional reverse phase HPLC with UV detection. The developed method was successfully applied to investigate the pharmacokinetics of epirubicin after intravenous administration of a reference epirubicin and its designed nano-formulations to rats. C18 column was used in an isocratic mode for analyte elution at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min with UV detection of 234 nm. The mobile phase was composed of acetonitrile 22% (channel A) and 0.025% tri fluoro-acetic acid in water (channel B). Ondansetron was added as an internal standard, and the plasma samples were analyzed after protein precipitation. A concentration range of 0.016-1.024 μg/mL was selected for the construction of calibration curves, with LLOQ of 0.016 μg/mL. Results showed that the value of AUC, half-life, and mean residence time of designed nano-formulation were bounce to 10, 9, and 11 times higher, when compared to the reference epirubicin after intravenous dose of 10 mg/kg of epirubicin to rats, respectively. The designed epirubicin nano-formulations achieved clinically significant pharmacokinetic values in rats. Current method will help epirubicin future research using clinical samples and drug bioequivalence studies on various novel formulations for drug safety purposes.
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