A sensitive and selective method for the determination of mevalonic acid in dog plasma by gas chromatography/negative ion chemical ionization-mass spectrometry.

A sensitive and selective method has been developed for the determination of mevalonic acid (MVA), a cholesterol biosynthetic precursor, in dog plasma using solid-phase extraction in combination with gas chromatography/negative ion chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (GC/NICI-MS). MVA extracted from plasma with a phenylboronic acid-bonded phase cartridge was converted to its pentafluorobenzyl (PFB) ester-cyclic boronate derivative to produce a carboxyltate anion [M-PFB]- in the NlCl mode. PFB ester boronate derivatives of MVA and its internal standard, d3-mevalonolactone, were monitored in the selected ion mode at m/z 213 and 216, respectively. The precision and accuracy of within-run and between-run assays were within 8%. This method was used to follow the diurnal variation of MVA levels in plasma of fasted and fed dogs. The diurnal variations of plasma MVA levels observed between the two groups were similar to those reported previously for human and rat plasma.