[Determination of six psychotropic drug metabolites in human plasma by LC-MS/MS method]

Objective: To establish a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the determination of N-desalkylquetiapine, hydroxybupropion, N-desmethyl clozapine, N-desmethyl clomipramine, O-desmethyvenlafaxine and dehydro aripiprazole in human plasma. Methods: In June 2023, plasma samples were treated with methanol-acetonitrile (volume ratio of 1∶1) for protein precipitation and then detected by LC-MS/MS. It was separated by C18 column and eluted with 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate water and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate methanol solution as mobile phase gradient. The metabolites of six psychotropic drugs were qualitatively and quantitatively by using electrospray positive ion multi-reactive ion monitoring scanning mode (MRM) . Results: The linear relationships of six psychotropic drug metabolites were good in the concentration range of 2-100 μg/L. The linear correlation coefficients were 0.9971-0.9999, the limits of quantification of the method were 0.10-6.00 μg/L, and the inter-and intra-day precision were 4.6%-9.8% and 1.5%-8.6%, with the recoveries of the spiked standards ranged from 90.0% to 106.1%. Conclusion: The LC-MS/MS method for the determination of metabolites of six psychotropic drugs in human plasma is simple, rapid and sensitive, and can be used for the qualitative and quantitative determination of metabolites in plasma samples of patients suspected of psychotropic drug poisoning.