Martin Ahnoff

Determination of felodipine in plasma by capillary gas chromatography with electron capture detection.

Felodipine in plasma was extracted with toluene and determined by automated capillary gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Undesirable oxidation of the dihydropyridine derivative in the injector and in the column was avoided by the use of glass materials with the inner surfaces treated by high-temperature silylation. The day-to-day reproducibility of the method was represented by a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 5% for a felodipine concentration of 25 nmol/l. The minimum determinable concentration (giving better than 15% RSD) was 1-2 nmol/l (0.4-0.8 ng/ml).

Determination of melagatran, a novel, direct thrombin inhibitor, in human plasma and urine by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Analytical methods for the determination of melagatran (H 319/68) in biological samples by liquid chromatography (LC)-positive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry using multiple reaction monitoring are described. Melagatran in plasma was isolated by solid-phase extraction on octylsilica, either in separate extraction tubes or in 96-well plates. Absolute recovery of melagatran from plasma was >92%. Melagatran and the internal standard, H 319/68 D2 13C2, were separated from other sample components by LC utilizing a C18 stationary phase and a mobile phase comprising 35% acetonitrile and 0.08% formic acid in 0.0013 mol/l ammonium acetate solution. After dilution, urine was injected directly onto the LC column and subjected to gradient LC. The relative standard deviation was 1-5% for concentrations above the limit of quantification, which was estimated for plasma at 10 or 25 nmol/l for sample volumes of 500 or 200 microl, respectively, and 100 nmol/l for urine.

Enantioselective determination of felodipine in human plasma by chiral normal-phase liquid chromatography and electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry.

An analytical method was developed for the determination of the enantiomers of felodipine, a dihydropyridine-type calcium antagonist, in human blood plasma. Felodipine was extracted from plasma using toluene as extraction solvent. The enantiomers were separated on a cellulose tris(4-methyl benzoate) stationary phase (Chiralcel OJ-R) using 2-propanol-iso-hexane (11:89) as mobile phase. Post-column addition of ammonium acetate in ethanol-water (95:5) allowed sensitive detection of the ammonium adduct by electrospray ionisation and selected reaction monitoring. Deuterated felodipine racemate was used as internal standard. Within-run repeatability was determined and a coefficient of variation below 2% was achieved at 22 nmol/l and below 10% at 0.27 nmol/l. Between-day precision was evaluated and a coefficient of variation of 3.6% at 4 nmol/l plasma was obtained. Limit of quantification (LOQ) was set at 0.25 nmol/l (0.10 microg/l). The method proved adequate for pharmacokinetic studies of R- and S-felodipine after oral administration of therapeutic doses of felodipine.

Development of a Highly Sensitive Method Using Liquid Chromatography-Multiple Reaction Monitoring to Quantify Membrane P-Glycoprotein in Biological Matrices and Relationship to Transport Function

The quantification of P-glycoprotein [P-gp, ABCB1, multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1)] protein in biological matrices is considered a key factor missing for useful translation of in vitro functional data to the in vivo situation and for comparison of transporter data among different in vitro models. In the present study a liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry method was developed to quantify P-gp membrane protein levels in different biological matrices. The amount of P-gp transporter protein was measured in Caco-2 cell monolayers and in inside-out human embryonic kidney (HEK)-MDR1 vesicles. From both in vitro systems, two preparations with different functionality were used. Transporter function was determined as digoxin efflux in Caco-2 cell monolayers and N-methylquinidine (NMQ) uptake in membrane vesicles, and, in addition, mRNA expression in the Caco-2 monolayers was measured. The results showed an excellent relationship between NMQ uptake functionality in inside-out HEK-MDR1 vesicles and protein contents. Similar concordance between the digoxin efflux and P-gp content in different Caco-2 cell cultures was observed, whereas mRNA levels are indicative of increased P-gp content and activity in older Caco-2 cultures, however, not yielding the same quantitative relationship. The results from both Caco-2 and HEK-MDR1 membrane vesicles confirm that the protein content is directly related to the level of activity in the respective system. The method presented here to quantify P-gp protein by LC-multiple reaction monitoring will facilitate the development of future methodologies to bridge between expression systems and cell/tissue models and to scale from in vitro models to whole organs.

Determination of ximelagatran, an oral direct thrombin inhibitor, its active metabolite melagatran, and the intermediate metabolites, in biological samples by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

Analytical methods for the determination of ximelagatran, an oral direct thrombin inhibitor, its active metabolite melagatran, and intermediate metabolites, melagatran hydroxyamidine and melagatran ethyl ester, in biological samples by liquid chromatography (LC) positive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (MS) using selected reaction monitoring are described. Isolation from human plasma was achieved by solid-phase extraction on octylsilica. Analytes and isotope-labelled internal standards were separated by LC utilising a C(18) analytical column and a mobile phase comprising acetonitrile-4 mmol/l ammonium acetate (35:65, v/v) containing 0.1% formic acid, at a flow-rate of 0.75 ml/min. Absolute recovery was approximately 80% for ximelagatran, approximately 60% for melagatran ethyl ester and >90% for melagatran and melagatran hydroxyamidine. Limit of quantification was 10 nmol/l, with a relative standard deviation <20% for each analyte and <5% above 100 nmol/l. Procedures for determination of these analytes in human urine and breast milk, plus whole blood from rat and mouse are also described.

Thermal inactivation of enzymes and pathogens in biosamples for MS analysis

Protein denaturation is the common basis for enzyme inactivation and inactivation of pathogens, necessary for preservation and safe handling of biosamples for downstream analysis. While heat-stabilization technology has been used in proteomic and peptidomic research since its introduction in 2009, the advantages of using the technique for simultaneous pathogen inactivation have only recently been addressed. The time required for enzyme inactivation by heat (≈1 min) is short compared with chemical treatments, and inactivation is irreversible in contrast to freezing. Heat stabilization thus facilitates mass spectrometric studies of biomolecules with a fast conversion rate, and expands the chemical space of potential biomarkers to include more short-lived entities, such as phosphorylated proteins, in tissue samples as well as whole-blood (dried blood sample) samples.

Matrix effect explained by unexpected formation of peptide in acidified plasma

AIM Peak distortion and strong signal enhancement was observed when applying a bioanalytical method based on mixed-mode SPE, hydrophilic interaction chromatography and ESI-MS to acidified rabbit plasma samples. RESULTS High-resolution ESI-MS and N-terminal peptide sequencing revealed a peptide NFQNAL, which was confirmed by H/D exchange ESI-MS. CONCLUSION The peptide causing the observed matrix effect was formed by enzymatic degradation of serum albumin at pH 3. Degradation required both acidification and presence of other plasma constituents in addition to albumin to take place. The degree of signal enhancement correlated to the level of NFQNAL in the ion source as measured by MS, with a maximal enhancement factor of 3 at intermediate levels of NFQNAL. The interference was eliminated by changing to another type of hydrophilic interaction chromatography column.