The primary challenge associated with the development of an LC/MS/MS-based assay for simultaneous determination of biogenic monoamine neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), and normetanephrine (NM) in rat brain microdialysates is to improve detection sensitivity. In this work, a UPLC/ MS/MS-based method combined with a diethyl labeling technique was developed for simultaneous determination of a panel of monoamines in rat prefrontal cortex microdialysates. The chromatographic run time is 3.5 min/ sample. The limits of detection of the UPLC/MS/MS-based method for NE, DA, 5-HT/ and NM, with/without diethyl labeling of monoamines, are 0.005/0.4 (30/2367 pM), 0.005/0.1 (33/653 pM), 0.005/0.2 (28/1136 pM), and 0.002/0.2 ng/mL (11/1092 pM), respectively. Diethyl labeling of amino groups of monoamines affords 20-100 times increased detection sensitivity of corresponding native monoamines during the UPLC/MS/MS analysis. This could result from the following: (1) improved fragmentation patterns; (2) increased hydrophobicity and concomitantly increased ionization efficiency in ESI MS and MS/MS analysis; (3) reduced matrix interference. This labeling reaction employs a commercially available reagent, acetaldehyde-d4, to label the amine groups on the monoamines via reductive amination. It is also simple, fast (approximately 25-min reaction time), specific, and quantitative under mild reaction conditions. Data are also presented from the application of this assay to monitor the drug-induced changes of monoamine concentrations in rat prefrontal cortex microdialysate samples followed by administration of SKF 81297, a selective D1 dopamine receptor agonist known to elevate the extracellular level of the neurotransmitters DA and NE in the central nervous system.
Although the strategic use of enzymatic digestion combined with isotope dilution mass spectrometry has been increasingly developed and used for the absolute quantification of therapeutic and endogenous proteins in the biopharmaceutical industry over the past several years, the lack of an appropriate internal standard has become the rate-limiting step in the development of a standardized analytical approach to provide bioanalytical support for both preclinical and clinical studies. In this study, we present a universal strategy for fast development and validation (within 1-2 weeks) of a method for absolute quantification of a therapeutic monoclonal antibody in biological matrices using differential dimethyl labeling coupled with UPLC-MS/MS. Differential dimethyl labeling of tryptic peptides generated from the purified therapeutic monoclonal antibody and those derived from proteins in cynomolgus monkey serum with either d(2)- or d(0)-formaldehyde provided a fast, cost-effective, and standardized approach to generate internal standards for any surrogate peptides that are used to quantify the therapeutic monoclonal antibody in biological matrices. This labeling reaction employs inexpensive and commercially available reagents, d(0)- or d(2)-formaldehyde, to globally label the N-terminus and epsilon-amino group of Lys in a peptide via reductive amination. Moreover, the process is simple, relatively fast (<2 h reaction time), specific, and quantitative under mild reaction conditions. The chromatographic run time is 6 min per sample. The linearity of the assay for the selected monoclonal antibody was established from 1.00 to 1000 mug/mL with accuracy and precision within 15% at all concentrations. The intraday and interday assay accuracy (%RE) and coefficient of variations (CV%) are all within 15% for all QCs (2.00, 4.00, 20.0, 100, 750 mug/mL) prepared in three different serum pools from male and female cynomolgus monkeys.
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