Determination of a novel anticancer c-Met inhibitor LS-177 in rat plasma and tissues with a validated UPLC-MS/MS...

LS-177 is a novel small-molecule kinase inhibitor employed to interrupt the c-Met signaling pathway. A rapid and sensitive ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for determination of LS-177 in rat plasma and tissues. The biosamples were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction with methyl tert-butyl ether and separated on a C18 column (50 × 4.6 mm, 2.6 µm) using a gradient elution mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid water. Under the optimal conditions, the selectivity of the method was satisfactory with no endogenous interference. The intraday and interday precisions (relative standard deviation) were <10.5% and the accuracy (relative error) was from -12.5 to 12.5% at all quality control levels. Excellent recovery and negligible matrix effects were observed. Stability studies showed that LS-177 was stable during the preparation and analytical processes. The UPLC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution studies. The results indicated that there was no significant drug accumulation after multiple-dose oral administration of LS-177. The tissue distribution study exhibited significant higher uptakes of LS-177 in stomach, intestine, lung and liver among all of the tissues. The results in pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution may provide a meaningful basis for clinical application.