Development and Validation of a Method for Assay of Porphyrins and Their Precursors by HPLC with UV Detection in Human Plasma

Porphyrinogenic drugs can cause changes in heme metabolism, leading to increases in porphyrin levels in biological fluids and exacerbation of the course of porphyrias. The sites at which porphyrins and their precursors accumulate determine the course and clinical picture of porphyrias, i.e., liver (hepatic types) and bone marrow (erythropoietic types). Porphyria biomarkers are found in urine, feces, and plasma. A reverse phase HPLC technique with UV detection was validated. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of the composition of heme precursors (nine markers + internal standard) in blood plasma was carried out on a Waters Acquity UPLC H-CLASS system with a diode array detector.