Electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry of the two main antimalarial drugs: artemether and lumefantrine

• Main Author: Santos,Vanessa G. dos
• Publication Date: 2012
• Other Authors: Alves,Ricardo J., Eberlin,Marcos N., Pianetti,Gerson A., César,Isabela C.
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (Online)
• Download full: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532012000100010
• topic: artemether; lumefantrine; ion dissociation; tandem mass spectrometry; ESI-MS/MS

Electrospray ionization in the positive ion mode and high resolution and high accuracy tandem mass spectrometry performed in a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer were used to investigate the dissociation chemistry of the intact molecules of two most widely used antimalarial drugs: artemether and lumefantrine. The dissociation pathways of their cationized and protonated forms were rationalized based on high accuracy mass measurements and isotopic distributions. The obtained results should benefit LC-MS/MS monitoring and quantitation by mass spectrometry of the artemether and lumefantrine molecules, as well as of new derivatives or other structurally related antimalarial drugs.