Quantitative determination of a novel insulin sensitizer and its para-hydroxylated metabolite in human plasma by LC-MS/MS.

I, 5-[3-[3-(4-phenoxy-2-propylphenoxy)-propoxy]-phenyl]-2,4-thiazolidinedione sodium salt, is a dual alpha/gamma peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonist for potential use in diabetic patients. The compound has a para-hydroxylated metabolite, II, which has also been shown to exhibit PPAR activity. An LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of I and its active metabolite (II) in human plasma has been successfully developed. The method consists of treating 0.5 ml plasma with ammonium acetate (pH 9.6; 50mM) and extracting I, II and internal standard (III, Fig. 2) with 5 ml ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate is evaporated and the samples are reconstituted in 0.1 ml acetonitrile:0.1% formic acid (65:35, v/v). The entire extraction procedure, as well as sample collection, was performed in glass tubes and vials to overcome the analytes adherence to polypropylene. A linear HPLC gradient was used to separate the analyte, metabolite, internal standard, and other interfering, non-quantitated metabolites. Detection was by negative ionization MS/MS on a turbo ionspray probe. Precursor-->product ion combinations were monitored in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The linear range is 0.05-20 ng/ml for I and 0.1-20 ng/ml for II. Recoveries were 59.4, 90.1 and 56.8% for I, II and III, respectively. Intraday variation using this method was <==7.0% for I and <==9.2% for II. The method exhibits good linearity and reproducibility for each analyte and good sensitivity, selectivity and robustness when used for the analysis of clinical samples.