UPLC-MS/MS Assay for Quantification of Wedelolactone and Demethylwedelolactone in Rat Plasma and the Application to a Preclinical Pharmacokinetic Study

• Published in: Combinatorial chemistry & high throughput screening Vol. 25; no. 8; p. 1271
• Main Authors: Wang, Bao-E, Zhang, Lin-Tao, Yang, Sheng-Bao, Xu, Zeng-Liang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Arab Emirates 01.07.2022
• Subjects: pharmacokinetics; wedelolactone; UPLC-MS/MS; Herba Ecliptae; demethylwedelolactone; rat plasma
• ISSN: 1875-5402
• DOI: 10.2174/1386207324666210520093517

Wedelolactone and demethylwedelolactone are the two major coumarin constituents of Herba Ecliptae. The objective of this work was to develop and validate a sensitive, rapid, and robust UPLC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of wedelolactone and demethylwedelolactone in rat plasma. Wedelolactone and demethylwedelolactone were extracted from rat plasma by protein precipitation with acetonitrile. Electrospray ionization in negative mode and selected reaction monitoring (SRM) were used for wedelolactone and demethylwedelolactone at the transitions m/z 312.8→298.0 and m/z 299.1→270.6, respectively. Chromatographic separation was conducted on a Venusil C column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 5 μm) with isocratic elution of acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid in water (55:45, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. A linear range was observed over the concentration range of 0.25-100 ng/mL for wedelolactone and demethylwedelolactone. They reached their maximum plasma concentrations (C , 74.9±13.4 ng/mL for wedelolactone and 41.3±9.57 ng/mL for demethylwedelolactone) at the peak time (T ) of 0.633 h and 0.800 h, respectively. The AUC value of wedelolactone (260.8±141.8 ng h/mL) was higher than that of demethylwedelolactone (127.4±52.7 ng h/mL) by approximately 2-fold, whereas the terminal elimination half-life (t ) of wedelolactone (2.20±0.59 h) showed the approximately same as that of demethylwedelolactone (2.08±0.69 h). Based on full validation according to US FDA guidelines, this UPLC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats.