Quantification of peptides in human synovial fluid using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A method to explore the stability of two anti-inflammatory peptides in human synovial fluid (HSF) has been developed and validated using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The two peptides are BQ123 Cyclo(-D-Trp-D-Asp-L-Pro-D-Val-L-Leu, Mw = 610.7) and R-954 (AcOrn[Oic², (αMe)Phe⁵, DβNal⁷, Ile⁸]desArg⁹-bradykinin, Mw = 1194.4). Human synovial fluid samples were analyzed after a protein precipitation step with acetonitrile and dilution with mobile phase. DMSO was used as anti-adsorptive agent. We used an octyl silane column with formic acid (0.1%, v/v) in water as the aqueous mobile phase and acetonitrile isopropanol-formic acid (20:80, 0.1 v/v) as the organic mobile phase and 0.7 mL/min flow rate. The peptides CY-771 and pepstatin A were used as internal standards. Selective detection was performed by tandem mass spectrometry with a heated electrospray source (HESI), operated in positive ionization mode and in selected reaction monitoring acquisition (SRM). The method limit of quantification (injection volume = 10 µL) was 0.17 ng and 1.2 ng, corresponding to 28 and 102 nmol L^-1 for BQ123 and R-954 respectively in human synovial fluid. Calibration curves obtained using matrix-matched calibration standards and internal standard were linear from 20 to 1000 nmol L^-1. Precision values (%R.S.D.) were ≤ 14% in the entire linear range. Accuracy measured at a low and a high concentration level ranged from 93.1% to 102%. The recoveries (at 800 nmol L^-1) were 96.4% for BQ123 and 102.0% for R-954. The method was successfully applied to follow the degradation kinetics of both peptides in human synovial fluid from arthritic patients during 72 h.