Pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of liensinine in mouse blood by UPLC-MS/MS

Abstract

AbstractLiensinine is a bisbenzyltetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloid extracted from lotus (Nelumbo nucifera GAERTNER., Nelumbonaceae), especially in its embryo loti “Lien Tze Hsin” (green embryo of mature seed). A rapid and simple UPLC-MS/MS method was developed to determine liensinine in mouse blood and its application to a pharmacokinetic study. The blood samples were preprocessed by protein precipitation using acetonitrile. Midazolam (internal standard, IS) and liensinine were gradient eluted by mobile phase of methanol and water (0.1% formic acid) in a Waters UPLC BEH C18 column. The multiple reaction monitoring of m/z 611.3 → 206.1 for liensinine and m/z 326.2 → 291.1 for IS with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source was used for quantitative detection. The calibration curve ranged from 0.5 to 400 ng/mL (r > 0.995). The accuracy ranged from 92.2 to 108.2%, the precision of intra-day and inter-day was less than 14%, and the matrix effect was between 100.0% and 109.6%, the recovery was better than 71.0%. The developed UPLC-MS/MS method was successfully used for a pharmacokinetic study of liensinine in mice after oral (5 mg/kg) and intravenous administration (1 mg/kg), and the absolute availability of liensinine was 1.8%.