An eco-friendly and cost-effective HPTLC method for quantification of COVID-19 antiviral drug and co-administered medications in spiked human plasma

Abstract

The coronavirus-2 has led to a global pandemic of COVID-19 with an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome leading to worldwide quarantine measures and a rise in death rates. The objective of this study is to propose a green, sensitive, and selective densitometric method to simultaneously quantify remdesivir (REM) in the presence of the co-administered drug linezolid (LNZ) and rivaroxaban (RIV) in spiked human plasma. TLC silica gel aluminum plates 60 F254 were used as the stationary phase, and the mobile phase was composed of dichloromethane (DCM): acetone (8.5:1.5, v/v) with densitometric detection at 254 nm. Well-resolved peaks have been observed with retardation factors (R_f) of 0.23, 0.53, and 0.72 for REM, LNZ, and RIV, respectively. A validation study was conducted according to ICH Q2 (R1) Guidelines. The method was rectilinear over the concentration ranges of 0.2–5.5 μg/band, 0.2–4.5 μg/band and 0.1–3.0 μg/band for REM, LNZ and RIV, respectively. The sensitivities of REM, LIN, and RIV were outstanding, with quantitation limits of 128.8, 50.5, and 55.8 ng/band, respectively. The approach has shown outstanding recoveries ranging from 98.3 to 101.2% when applied to pharmaceutical formulations and spiked human plasma. The method’s greenness was assessed using Analytical Eco-scale, GAPI, and AGREE metrics.