Simultaneous determination of four phytoecdysteroids by LC-MS/MS: application to a comparative pharmacokinetic study in normal and adjuvant arthritis rats after oral administration of C. officinalis Kuan phytoecdysteroids extract

• Published in: Xenobiotica Vol. 53; no. 12; p. 634
• Main Authors: Wang, Haiqiang, Yang, Deqiang, Jiang, Shuang, Ren, Yixuan, Wu, Lihong, Wang, Zhenyue, Kuang, Haixue, Wang, Zhibin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 02.12.2023
• Subjects: Administration, Oral; Animals; Arthritis, Experimental - drug therapy; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - drug therapy; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Rats; Reproducibility of Results; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods; pharmacokinetics; UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS; phytoecdysteroids; C. officinalis Kuan
• ISSN: 1366-5928
• DOI: 10.1080/00498254.2023.2270741

Kuan is the dry root of Kuan. Clinically, it is used for fall and flutter injury, rheumatism and arthralgia. Phytoecdysteroids have significant anti-inflammatory effects, and the phytoecdysteroids present in Kuan exhibit potential for treating rheumatoid arthritis.This study first developed a selective, accurate and efficient LC-MS/MS method for 12-day pharmacokinetic studies regarding the simultaneous determination of cyasterone, 25-epi-28-epi-cyasterone, precyasterone and capitasterone from Kuan phytoecdysteroids extract in normal and adjuvant arthritis rats.An Agilent Eclipse Plus C RRHD column (1.8 µm, 50mm × 2.1 mm) with a gradient mobile phase consisting of water (A) and acetonitrile (B) was used for analysis. The mass analysis was performed in an Agilent 6430 QQQ-MS mass spectrometer with positive mode multiple reaction monitoring (MRM).The results indicated that the AUC and AUC values of the four phytoecdysteroids in adjuvant arthritis rats were different from those in normal rats on the first day, which could provide a helpful reference for pharmacological and toxicological studies, as well as clinical applications of Kuan in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.