High-throughput and wide-range simultaneous determination of linezolid, daptomycin and tedizolid in human plasma using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

•The first simultaneous quantification method for linezolid, daptomycin and tedizolid in human plasma is reported.•The high-throughput assay has short pretreatment and run time, with wide-range calibration curves capable of measuring both Cmax and Ctrough.•The assay fulfilled the requirements of US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for bioanalytical method validation. Several recent studies on pharmacokinetics of linezolid (LZD) and daptomycin (DAP) reported that plasma concentration was linked to efficacy and adverse effects, suggesting the usefulness of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). The usefulness of TDM for tedizolid (TZD) has not been reported, but a previous report showed individual differences in area under the curve depending on body weight. In intensive care unit (ICU) patients, pharmacokinetics was reported to fluctuate due to various factors. Here, we developed a high-throughput and wide-range simultaneous quantification method for LZD, DAP and TZD in human plasma using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Plasma samples were pretreated by solid-phase extraction using Oasis® HLB μElution Plate. The assay fulfilled the requirements of US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for bioanalytical method validation. The assay for LZD, DAP and TZD showed good linearity over wide ranges of 100−100000, 150−150000 and 5−5000 ng/mL, respectively. Within-batch accuracy and precision as well as batch-to-batch accuracy and precision for all three drugs fulfilled the criteria of the above guidance. Extraction recovery rates were more than 92.2 % for LZD, 44.7 % for DAP, and 84.8 % for TZD. Matrix effect showed no remarkable differences among low, medium and high quality control samples for the three drugs. The maximum and trough concentrations of three patients each who received LZD, DAP or TZD in ICU were measured by the novel UPLC-MS/MS method. In all patients, the measured concentrations were within the ranges of the calibration curves, demonstrating the feasibility of clinical application of the novel method. In conclusion, we have succeeded to develop the first method for simultaneous quantification of plasma concentrations of LZD, DAP and TZD.