ABSTRACT
There is an increasing interest in in vivo metabolite identification in early drug discovery in order to (i) give a more complete picture of metabolic profile in investigational animal models, (ii) propose phase I and phase II metabolites using the same pharmacokinetic/toxicokinetic study samples, (iii) expose metabolically labile groups where chemical modifications could improve stability, and (iv) enable early safety assessment of metabolites. In the early discovery stage of our anti-inflammatory program, one novel benzoxaborole, AN6414, exhibiting both PDE4 enzyme and TNFα inhibition activities, became our primary candidate for further investigation. The traditional metabolite identifications usually require high dosed samples with long data scans and analysis. In this study, we conducted quick and more selective core-structure related precursor scans followed by daughter ion scans and identified a total of 10 major phase I and phase II metabolites using rat plasma samples from a toxicokinetic study at an oral dosing of 30 mg/kg. Plasma samples were treated with solid phase extraction (SPE) prior to LC/MS/MS. An AB SCIEX API 4000 QTRAP mass spectrometer coupled with a Shimadzu LC system was used for LC/MS/MS analysis. We found the major metabolites of AN6414 to be oxidative deboronation, protodeboronation, oxidation products and their sulfate-conjugated species. This analysis drove analoging efforts which improved the pharmacokinetic profile, namely, lowering clearance and increasing exposure relative to AN6414. Toxicity predictions by the software program DEREK suggest the identified potential metabolites to be safe.
Subject(s)
Anti-Inflammatory Agents/pharmacokinetics , Boron Compounds/pharmacokinetics , Chromatography, Liquid , Drug Discovery/methods , Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitors/pharmacology , Pyridines/pharmacokinetics , Tandem Mass Spectrometry , Administration, Oral , Animals , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/administration & dosage , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/blood , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/urine , Area Under Curve , Biotransformation , Boron Compounds/administration & dosage , Boron Compounds/blood , Boron Compounds/toxicity , Female , Male , Metabolic Clearance Rate , Models, Biological , Oxidation-Reduction , Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitors/administration & dosage , Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitors/blood , Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitors/toxicity , Pyridines/administration & dosage , Pyridines/blood , Pyridines/toxicity , Rats , Rats, Sprague-Dawley , Risk Assessment , Software , Solid Phase Extraction , Sulfates/pharmacokineticsABSTRACT
A sensitive and high throughput off-line microElution 96-well solid-phase extraction (SPE) followed by strong cation exchange (SCX) liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) quantification for determination of cefepime has been developed and validated in mouse plasma. Using the chemical analog, ceftazidime as an internal standard (IS), the linear range of the method for the determination of cefepime in mouse plasma was 4-2048 ng/mL with the lower limit of quantitation level (LLOQ) of 4 ng/mL. The inter- and intra-assay precision and accuracy of the method were below 9.05% and ranged from 95.6 to 113%, respectively, determined by quality control (QC) samples at five concentration levels including LLOQ. After microElution SPE, 71.1% of cefepime was recovered. The application of the validated assay for the determination of cefepime in mouse pharmacokinetics (PK) samples after intravenous (IV) and subcutaneous (SC) doses was demonstrated.
Subject(s)
Cephalosporins/blood , Chromatography, Gel/methods , Solid Phase Extraction/methods , Tandem Mass Spectrometry/methods , Animals , Cefepime , Cephalosporins/pharmacokinetics , Female , Linear Models , Mice , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
Due to severe chelating effect caused by N-hydroxylpyridone group of ciclopirox, there is no published direct HPLC or LC/MS/MS method for the determination of ciclopirox in any in vitro or in vivo matrix. Instead, the time-consuming pre-column derivatization methods have been adapted for indirect analysis of ciclopirox. After overcoming the chelating problem by using K(2)EDTA coated tubes, a direct, sensitive and high-throughput LC/MS/MS method was successfully developed and validated to determine the amount of ciclopirox that penetrated across the nail plate during in vitro nail penetration studies. The method involved adding a chemical analog, chloridazon as internal standard (IS) in K(2)EDTA coated tubes, mixing IS with ciclopirox in a 96-well plate and then proceeding to LC/MS/MS analysis. The MS/MS was selected to monitor m/z 208.0-->135.8 and 221.8-->77.0 for ciclopirox and IS, respectively, using positive electrospray ionization. The method was validated over a concentration range of 8-256 ng/mL, yielding calibration curves with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9991 with a lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of 8 ng/mL. The assay precision and accuracy were evaluated using quality control (QC) samples at three concentration levels. Analyzed concentrations ranged from 101% to 113% of their respective nominal concentration levels with coefficients of variation (CV) below 10.6%. The average recovery of ciclopirox from nail matrix was 101%. The validated method was successfully used to analyze the ciclopirox formulation and in vitro nail penetration samples.
