title: Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay for the quantitation of beta-dihydroartemisinin in rat plasma.
abstract: Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) is a sesquiterpene used in the world as an antimalarial. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of dihydroartemisinin in rats, a sensitive and specific liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantitation of dihydroartemisinin in rat plasma. For detection, a Sciex API 4000 LC-MS/MS with a TurboIonSpray ionization (ESI) inlet in the positive ion-multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was used. The plasma samples were pre-treated by a simple liquid-liquid extraction with diethyl ether. The statistical evaluation for this method reveals excellent linearity, accuracy and precision for the range of concentrations 0.2-100.0 ng/mL. The method had a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 0.2 ng/mL for beta-dihydroartemisinin in 100 microL of plasma. The method was successfully applied to the characterization of the pharmacokinetic profile of beta-dihydroartemisinin in rats after oral administration.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Hong-Xia
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Rui-Li
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Li-Feng
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shu-Qiu
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012717:Sesquiterpenes / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D037621:Artemisinins; D012717:Sesquiterpenes; C039060:artenimol