Sensitive method for the quantitative determination of proguanil and its metabolites in rat blood and plasma by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A sensitive, simple and fast liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method for the determination of proguanil (PG) and its metabolites, cycloguanil (CG) and 1-(4-chlorophenyl)biguanide (4CPB), was developed and validated over a concentration range of 1-2000 ng/mL using only 50 microL of blood or plasma. After a simple solvent precipitation procedure, the supernatant was analysed directly by HPLC-MS/MS. Separation was achieved using an ethyl-linked phenyl reverse phase column with polar endcapping with an acetonitrile-water-formic acid gradient. Mass spectrometry was performed using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in positive electrospray ionization mode. The elution of PG (254.07-->169.99), CG (252.12-->195.02) and 4CPB (212.06-->153.06) was monitored using selected reaction monitoring. The three compounds and the internal standard (chloroproguanil) were well separated by HPLC and no interfering peaks were detected at the usual concentrations found in blood and plasma. The limit of quantification of PG and CG was 1 ng/mL and 5 ng/mL for 4CPB in rat blood and plasma. The extraction efficiency of PG, CG and 4CPB from rat blood and plasma was higher than 73%. The intra- and inter-assay variability of PG, CG and 4CPB were within 12% and the accuracy within +/-5%. This new assay offers higher sensitivity and a much shorter run time over earlier methods.

Determination of triacylglycerol regioisomers using electrospray ionization-quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry with a kinetic method.

The kinetic method was applied to differentiate and quantify mixtures of regioisomeric triacylglycerols (TAGs) by generating and mass selecting alkali ion bound metal dimeric clusters with a TAG chosen as reference (ref) and examining their competitive dissociations in a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer. This methodology readily distinguished pairs of regioisomers (AAB/ABA) such as LLO/LOL, OOP/OPO and SSP/SPS and consequently distinguished sn-1/sn-3, sn-2 substituents on the glycerol backbone. The dimeric complex ions [ref, Li, TAG((AAB and/or ABA))](+) generated by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry were subjected to collision induced dissociation causing competitive loss of either the neutral TAG reference (ref) leading to [Li(AAB and/or ABA)](+) or the neutral TAG molecule (TAG((AAB and/or ABA))) leading to [ref, Li](+). The ratio of the two competitive dissociation rates, defined by the product ion branching ratio (R(iso)), was related via the kinetic method to the regioisomeric composition of the investigated TAG mixture. In this work, a linear correlation was established between composition of the mixture of each TAG regioisomer and the logarithm of the branching ratio for competitive fragmentation. Depending on the availability of at least one TAG regioisomer as standard, the kinetic method and the standard additions method led to the quantitative analysis of natural TAG mixtures.

Regioisomer characterization of triacylglycerols by non-aqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry using silver nitrate as a postcolumn reagent.

Triacylglycerols (TAGs) provide a challenge for mass spectrometry (MS) analysis because of their complexity. In particular, for dietary, nutritional and metabolic purposes, the positional placement of fatty acids on the glycerol backbone of TAGs is a crucial aspect. To solve this problem, we have investigated the TAGs' fragmentation patterns using an ion trap mass spectrometer. A series of pure regioisomeric pairs of TAGs (POP/PPO, POO/OPO and OSO/SOO) were cationized by Ag(+) after their separation by non-aqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography (NARP-LC) before MS to improve MS sensitivity. Electrospray ionization-MS (ESI-MS) conditions were optimized in order to produce characteristic [M + Ag + AgNO(3)](+) ions from each TAG, which were then fragmented to produce MS/MS spectra and then fragmented further to produce up to MS(5) spectra. The observation of ions produced by LC-MS(5) of on-line Ag(+)-cationized TAG provided unambiguous information on the fatty acid distribution on the glycerol backbone. These strategies of MS to MS(5) experiments were applied to identify components and to determine the regiospecificity of TAG within a complex mixture of lipids in natural oils.