Development and validation of a UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of 7-hydroxymitragynine, a μ-opioid agonist, in rat plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A simple, sensitive and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to determine the concentrations of 7-hydroxymitragynine in rat plasma. Following a single-step liquid-liquid extraction of plasma samples using chloroform, 7-hydroxymitragynine and the internal standard (tryptoline) were separated on an Acquity UPLC(TM) BEH C18 (1.7 µm, 2.1 × 50 mm) column using an isocratic elution at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The mobile phase consisted of 0.1% acetic acid in water and 0.1% acetic acid in acetonitrile (10:90, v/v). The run time was 2.5 min. The analysis was carried out under the multiple reaction-monitoring mode using positive electrospray ionization. Protonated ions [M + H](+) and their respective product ions were monitored at the following transitions: 415 → 190 for 7-hydroxymitragynine and 173 → 144 for the internal standard. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 10-4000 ng/mL (r(2) = 0.999) with a lower limit of quantification of 10 ng/mL. The extraction recoveries ranged from 62.0 to 67.3% at concentrations of 20, 600 and 3200 ng/mL). Intra- and inter-day assay precisions (relative standard deviation) were <15% and the accuracy was within 96.5-104.0%. This validated method was successfully applied to quantify 7-hydroxymitragynine in rat plasma following intravenous administration.