μPESI-MS/MS System for Screening and Quantitating Drugs in Plasma Samples
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Updated: Jul 26, 2025

High-throughput and Comprehensive Drug Surveillance Using Multisegment Injection-Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry
Published on: April 23, 2019
Simin Zhang1, Qian Liu1,2, Xiangyang Qu1
1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Design and Evaluation, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong China, 510006.
Abstract:
Recently, we developed a novel microprobe electrospray ionization (μPESI) source and its coupled MS (μPESI-MS/MS) system. Here, we aimed to widely validate the μPESI-MS/MS method for quantitative analysis of drugs in plasma samples. Furthermore, the relationship between the quantitative performance of the μPESI-MS/MS method and the physicochemical properties of target drugs was analyzed. The μPESI-MS/MS methods for quantitative analysis of 5 representative drugs with a relatively wide range of molecular weight, pKa, and log P values were developed and validated. The results showed that the linearity, accuracy, and precision of these methods met the requirements of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) guidance. Then a total of 75 drugs from plasma samples were primarily detected using the μPESI-MS/MS methods, among which 48 drugs could be quantitatively measured. Logistics regression suggested that drugs with significantly greater log P and physiological charge had better quantitative performance using the μPESI-MS/MS method. Collectively, these results clearly demonstrate the practical application of the μPESI-MS/MS system as a rapid approach to the quantitative analysis of drugs in plasma samples.

