Ultra‐performance hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of everolimus in mouse plasma

Ultra‐performance hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (UPHILIC) interfaced with the electrospray ionization (ESI) source of a tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous determination of everolimus in mouse plasma samples. UPHILIC was performed on a sub‐2 µm bare silica particle packing with the column pressure under traditional high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to allow fast separation of pharmaceutical compounds within a chromatographic analysis time of 1 min. This UPHILIC technology is comparable with reversed‐phase ultra‐performance liquid chromatography (RPUPLC) in terms of chromatographic efficiency but demands neither expensive ultra‐high‐pressure instrumentation nor new laboratory protocols. With the ESI source, multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) of the ammoniated adduct ions of the analyte was used for tandem mass spectrometric detection. The retention mechanism profiles of the test compounds under HILIC conditions were explored. The influences of experimental factors such as the compositions of mobile phases on the chromatographic performance and the ionization efficiency of the test compounds in positive ion mode were investigated. A UPHILIC/MS/MS approach following a protein precipitation procedure was applied for the quantitative determination of everolimus at the low ng/mL region in support of a pharmacodynamic study. The analytical results obtained by the UPHILIC/MS/MS approach were fond to be in good agreement with those obtained by the RPUPLC/MS/MS method in terms of assay sample throughput, sensitivity and accuracy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.