The Validation of Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Assays for Clinical Chemistry Assessments in Animal Models

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become a key platform in the clinical pathology laboratory and is being used more frequently for clinical pathology assessments in preclinical species for drug development studies. MS assays are being utilized for some traditional clinical pathology end points as well as novel biomarker analyses. For effective deployment in drug development toxicology studies, assays must be validated for use, and these validations are not very different from other bioanalytical platforms commonly found in the clinical pathology laboratory. Validations for MS assays include accuracy and precision assessments, analyte stability evaluations, carryover determinations, and recovery measures. The MS platform does present some unique challenges that should be considered, including ion suppression and availability of reference standards with MS data. Understanding the caveats of the MS platform is important for thorough validations and effective deployment.