Determination and Pharmacokinetics of Acetylcorynoline in Mouse Plasma by UPLC-MS/MS

Acetylcorynoline is an alkaloid isolated from the tubers of Corydalis ambigua Cham. et Schltdl. It has anti-inflammatory properties with the potential to treat Parkinson's disease. However, the use of UPLC-MS/MS for identifying acetylcorynoline in mouse plasma has not yet been explored. The present study aimed to develop a fast and selective method for determining the amount of acetylcorynoline in mouse plasma using UPLC-MS/MS. Plasma samples (10 mu L) were prepared using methanol-induced protein precipitation following the addition of aconitine as an internal standard. The chromatographic separation was accomplished using a UPLC HSS T3 column with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase. The analytes were run for 4.0 min in total. The target fragment ions m/z 410.4 -> 350.3 for acetylcorynoline and m/z 646.6 -> 586.5 for internal standard were used for quantification using multiple reaction monitoring mode. The mouse blood was obtained at different time points after intravenous (5 mg/kg) and oral (20 mg/kg) administration of acetylcorynoline. The calibration plots for acetylcorynoline in mouse plasma showed a linear trend over the whole range of 1-2000 ng/mL. Both the intraday and interday precision relative standard deviations were less than 11%. The half-life in mice was found to be 2.6 +/- 0.7 h and 2.7 +/- 0.8 h following oral and intravenous administration, respectively. The bioavailability was determined to be 58.9%. The pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of acetylcorynoline in mice were effectively analyzed using this UPLC-MS/MS method, which had a runtime of 4 min per sample and required only 10 mu L of plasma.