Selective and sensitive determination of bis(7)-tacrine, a high erythrocyte binding acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, in rat plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Biomed Chromatogr. 2008 Apr;22(4):414-20. doi: 10.1002/bmc.949.

Abstract

The current study aims to develop a specific and sensitive LC-MS/MS method for determination of bis(7)-tacrine (B7T) in rat plasma. A 100 microL plasma sample was extracted with ethyl acetate. B7T and the internal standard (IS), pimozide, in the samples were then analyzed with LC-MS/MS in positive electrospray ionization condition. Chromatographic separation of B7T and IS was achieved in a C(18) reversed-phase HPLC column (150 x 2.1 mm i.d.) by isocratic elution with a mobile phase consisting of 0.05% formic acid in water and acetonitrile (1:1, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.35 mL/min. Multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was employed to measure the ion transitions: m/z 247 to 197 for B7T and m/z 462 to m/z 328 for IS, respectively. The method was linear over the studied ranges of 100-5000 and 10-100 ng/mL. The intra-day and inter-day variations of the analysis were less than 6.8% with standard errors less than 9.0%. The detection limit of B7T in rat plasma was 1 ng/mL. The developed method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of B7T after intravenous administration of 1 mg/kg B7T and further proved to be readily utilized for determination of B7T in rat plasma samples.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cholinesterase Inhibitors / blood*
  • Cholinesterase Inhibitors / chemistry
  • Cholinesterase Inhibitors / metabolism
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / methods*
  • Erythrocytes / metabolism*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Rats
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Tacrine / blood*
  • Tacrine / chemistry
  • Tacrine / metabolism
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods*

Substances

  • Cholinesterase Inhibitors
  • Tacrine