Development of a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of acetylcholine and related neurotransmitters in brain microdialysis samples.

Monitoring concentrations of acetylcholine (ACh) in specific brain regions is important in understanding disease pathology, as well as in designing and evaluating novel disease-modifying treatments where cholinergic dysfunction is a hallmark feature. We have developed a sensitive and quantitative liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method to analyze the extracellular concentrations of ACh, choline (Ch) and (3-carboxylpropyl)-trimethylammonium (iso-ACh) in brain microdialysis samples of freely moving animals. One immediate advantage of this new method is the ability to monitor ACh in its free form without having to use a cholinesterase inhibitor in the perfusate. The separation of ACh, Ch, iso-ACh and related endogenous compounds was carried out based on cation exchange chromatography with a volatile elution buffer consisting of ammonium formate, ammonium acetate and acetonitrile. An unknown interference of ACh, which was observed in brain microdialysates from many studies, was well separated from ACh to ensure the accuracy of the measurement. Optimization of electrospray ionization conditions for these quaternary ammonium compounds achieved the limits of detection (S/N=3) of 0.2 fmol for ACh, 2 fmol for Ch and 0.6 fmol for iso-ACh using a benchtop tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer with moderate sensitivity. The limit of quantitation (S/N=10) was 1 fmol for ACh, 3 fmol for iso-ACh and 10 fmol for Ch. This method was selective, precise (<10% R.S.D.), and sensitive over a range of 0.05-10nM for ACh, 0.25-50 nM for iso-ACh and 15-3000 nM for Ch. To demonstrate that the developed method can be applied to monitoring changes in ACh concentrations in vivo, reference agents that have previously been shown to influence ACh levels were studied in rat dorsal hippocampus. This includes the 5-HT6 receptor antagonist, SB-271046, and the cholinesterase inhibitor, donepezil. Moreover, levels of ACh were demonstrated to be sensitive to infusion of tetrodotoxin (TTX) suggesting that the ACh being measured in vivo was of neuronal origin. Collectively, these biological data provided in vivo validation of this analytical method.