Determination of tafenoquine in dried blood spots and plasma using LC and fluorescence detection

Background: The growing problem of parasites developing resistance to the traditional antimalarial drugs makes the development of new effective and safe drugs crucial. Tafenoquine is a new promising antimalarial drug for prophylaxis and treatment. Results: A bioanalytical method for the determination of tafenoquine in 100 µl of capillary blood applied onto sampling paper and in 100 µl of plasma has been developed and validated. The Whatman 31 ET Chr paper was treated with 0.6 mol/l tartaric acid to improve the extraction recovery and solid-phase extraction was used for cleanup procedure of the blood samples. Plasma samples were precipitated with methanol....