Implementation of high-temperature superficially porous technologies for rapid LC-MS/MS diastereomer bioanalysis

The fast-paced nature of the pharmaceutical industry requires robust bioanalytical methods to endure the high-throughput sample demands of the production environment.

A rapid, accurate and precise LC-MS/MS method was developed for the quantitation of a diastereomer quartet in human plasma. Virtually all of the phosphatidylcholine and most of the lysophosphatidylcholine from human plasma were removed using a phospholipid-removing protein precipitation 96-well plate. An Agilent Poroshell SB-C18 2.1 × 50 mm superficially porous column was used at 100°C and 1.2 ml/min to separate a diastereomer quartet in <2.5 min. Peak shape, retention and resolution were maintained over nearly 200 extracted bioanalytical samples under these separation conditions. The method was tested for accuracy and precision; the assay inter-run accuracy and precision were minus 7.2-0.7% and 2.1-11.9%, respectively (n = 18).

The application of the superficially porous column resulted in twofold response increase and a 2.6-fold reduction in cycle time compared with a 3.5-µm column performing under comparable resolution conditions.