Simultaneous determination of a new inhibitor of acyl CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase, YM17E, and five metabolites using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection.

We describe a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination in plasma of YM17E (I), an inhibitor of acyl CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase, and its five metabolites using electrochemical detection. This method enables simultaneous quantification of I and five active metabolites. The plasma sample is extracted by a one-step solid-phase extraction using a SepPak C18 cartridge, with high recovery and reproducibility of the analytes. The method is sensitive and the limits of determination are 0.5 ng/ml for I and 1 ng/ml for metabolites M1, M2-a, M2-b, M3 and M4. This method is applicable to rat, dog and human plasma, and is useful for pharmacokinetic studies.