Determination of monocrotaline and usaramine in rat plasma by UPLC-MS/MS and their pharmacokinetics

Abstract An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of monocrotaline and usaramine in rat plasma, to study the plasma drug concentration and pharmacokinetics, and to calculate the absolute bioavailability. The plasma was treated with acetonitrile and methanol (9:1, v/v) protein precipitation method. The chromatographic column was UPLC HSS T3 (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm), the mobile phase was methanol-water (containing 0.1% formic acid with 10 mM ammonium acetate in water), and the elution time was 4 min at a flow rate of 0.4 mL min −1 . Electrospray ionization (ESI) positive ion mode was used for detection and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was used for quantitative analysis. Monocrotaline and usaramine were administered sublingual intravenously (iv) 1 mg kg −1 and orally (po) 5 mg kg −1 , respectively, with 6 rats in each group, for a total of 24 rats. Then the pharmacokinetic differences in rats were evaluated. For the UPLC-MS/MS method, the calibration curve showed good linearity in the range of 2–2,000 ng mL −1 , where r was greater than 0.99. The precision, accuracy, recovery, matrix effect and stability results were all consistent with the requirements of biological sample detection methods. to provide scientific experimental basis for the basic research The bioavailability of monocrotaline and usaramine in rat plasma was calculated, which was 43.5 and 19.5%, respectively.