Abstract
Nitazoxanide is an antimicrobial compound that was originally developed as an antiprotozoal drug. Recently nitazoxanide has been identified as broad-spectrum antiviral agent and redirected for the remediation of some respiratory tract viral infections. In this study, the spectrofluorimetric technique has been applied to determine Nitazoxanide (NTX) in tablets or its metabolite, tizoxanide (TZD), in human urine samples. The developed methodology is based on oxidizing NTX (non-fluorescence) into a highly fluorescent product by sodium hypochlorite. The fluorescence emission intensity was measured at 436.5 nm after fluorescence excitation at 362.5 nm. After optimizing all conditions, the analytical procedures and bio-analytical steps were evaluated and validated using ICH and FDA criteria, respectively. The method linearity, LOQ, and LOD values of NTX were 1.0–5.0 µg/mL, 0.434, and 0.143 µg/mL, respectively. The other novelty side of the presented work is the application of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanoparticles (NPs) as a magnetic solid-phase for the pre-concentration and extraction process. The synthesized magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscope and zeta sizer techniques. Finally, the utilized magnetic nanoparticles exhibited good recovery results for pre-concentration and extraction of NTX or its metabolite from spiked and real human urine samples, respectively.
•NTX and its metabolite were determined for the first time by fluorescence technique.•The determination is based on a feasible oxidation reaction by sodium hypochlorite.•The method was applied to determine NTX in pharmaceutical and biological samples.•Cobalt ferrite NPs were applied for pre-concentration and extraction of NTX.