Determination and disposition of meta-iodobenzylguanidine in plasma and heart of transporter-deficient mice by UPLC-MS/MS

A simple LC-MS/MS method for the quantitative determination of the norepinephrine analogue meta-iodobenzyl-guanidine (mIBG) was developed and validated for mouse plasma and tissues, including salivary gland and heart. The assay procedure involved a one-step solvent extraction of mIBG and the internal standard N-(4-fluorobenzyl)-guandine from plasma or tissue homogenates with acetonitrile. An Accucore aQ column was used to separate analytes using a gradient elution with a total run time of 3.5 min. Validation studies with quality control samples processed on consecutive days revealed values for intra-day and inter-day precision of < 11.3%, with values for accuracy ranging 96.8–111%. Linear responses were observed over the entire calibration curves range (up to 100 ng/mL), and the lower limit of quantification was 0.1 ng/mL, using sample volumes of 5 µL. The developed method was successfully applied to evaluate the plasma pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of mIBG in wild-type mice and animals lacking the organic cation transporters OCT1, OCT2, OCT3, and/or MATE1 to further understand mechanisms contributing to drug distribution and elimination and causes of inter-individual pharmacokinetic variability.