Mass balance method for SI-traceable purity assignment of synthetic oxytocin

Oxytocin is not only a significant peptide drug for enhancing uterine contractions, but also an emerging biomarker and therapeutic target of mental disorders in clinical practice. There is a pressing need for the standardization of oxytocin assays because of its low pharmaceutical quality and large variations among measurement approaches. International System of Units (SI)-traceable analytical methods and well-characterized pure reference materials are urgently needed to set up standard reference measurement systems in laboratory medicine, ensuring the accuracy and comparability of test results. Herein, the purity assignment of a synthetic oxytocin containing a disulfide linkage was established based on a mass balance method, which had never been performed for a cross-linked peptide. An in-house validated liquid chromatography-high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of structurally-related impurities in the study material. Twenty-one structurally-related impurities including deamidations, oxidations, and amino acid insertions, etc. ranging from 0.05 mg g^-1 to 15.65 mg g^-1 were identified and quantified by applying a hierarchy calibration concept. This study subsequently discusses a fit for purpose assessment for non-peptide related impurities including water, non-volatile counterions, inorganic elements, and volatile organic compounds that were determined using coulometric Karl Fischer titration, ion chromatography, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. The resulting assigned value (796.5 mg g^-1) is determined to be traceable to SI associated with a small measurement uncertainty of 6.5 mg g^-1 (k = 2). The method developed in this study has been verified through an international key comparison jointly coordinated by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures and the National Institute of Metrology.