The Pharmacokinetics in Mice and Cell Uptake of Thymus Immunosuppressive Pentapeptide Using LC-MS/MS Analysis

Thymus immunosuppressive pentapeptide (TIPP) is a novel anti-inflammatory peptide with high efficacy and low toxicity. This study aims to establish a selective LC-MS/MS method for analyzing the analyte TIPP in biological samples, laying the foundation for further PK and PD studies of TIPP. Protein precipitation was conducted in acetonitrile supplemented with 2% formic acid and 25 mg/mL dithiothreitol as a stabilizer, which was followed by backwashing the organic phase using dichloromethane. The chromatographic separation of TIPP was achieved on a C18 column with a gradient elution method. During positive electrospray ionization, TIPP was analyzed via multiple-reaction monitoring. The linear relationships between the concentration of TIPP and peak area in murine plasma cell lysates, supernatants, and the final cell rinse PBS were established within the ranges of 20–5000 ng/mL, 1–200 ng/mL, 10–200 μg/mL, and 0.1–20 ng/mL, respectively (r² > 0.99). Validated according to U.S. FDA guidelines, the proposed method was proved to be acceptable. Such a method had been successfully applied to investigate the pharmacokinetics of TIPP in mice via subcutaneous injection. The plasma half-life in mice was 5.987 ± 1.824 min, suggesting that TIPP is swiftly eliminated in vivo. The amount of TIPP uptake by RBL-2H3 cells was determined using this method, which was also visually verified by confocal. Furthermore, the effective intracellular concentration of TIPP was deduced by comparing the intracellular concentration of TIPP and degrees of inflammation, enlightening further investigation on the intracellular target and mechanism of TIPP.