HILIC LC-MS for the determination of 2'-C-methyl-cytidine-triphosphate in rat liver.

A very accurate and selective LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the quantification of 2'-C-modified nucleoside triphosphate in liver tissue samples. An efficient pretreatment procedure of liver tissue samples was developed, using a fully automated SPE procedure with 96-well SPE plate (weak anion exchange sorbent, 30 mg). Nucleotide hydrophilic interaction chromatography has been performed on an aminopropyl column (100 mm x 2.0 mm, 3 microm) using a gradient mixture of ACN and ACN/water (5:95 v/v) with 20 mM ammonium acetate at pH 9.45 as mobile phase at 300 microL/min flow rate. The 2'-C-modified nucleoside triphosphate was detected in the negative ESI mode in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Calibration curve was linear over the 0.05-50 microM concentration range. Satisfying results, confirming the high reliability of the established LC-MS/MS method, were obtained for intraday precision (CV = 2.5-9.1%) and accuracy (92.6-94.8%) and interday precision (CV = 9.6-11.5%) and accuracy (94.4-102.4%) as well as for recovery (82.0-112.6%) and selectivity. The method has been successfully applied for pharmacokinetic studies of 2'-C-methyl-cytidine-triphosphate in liver tissue samples.