A validated UHPLC-MS/MS method for rapid determination of senicapoc in plasma samples

The clinically tested KCa3.1 channel blocker, senicapoc, has been proven to have excellent pharmacological properties and prior clinical trials found it to be safe for use in patients with sickle cell anaemia. Currently, several preclinical projects are aiming to repurpose senicapoc for other indications, but well-described analytical methods in the literature are lacking. Our aim was to develop a sensitive, rapid and accurate ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method using pneumatically assisted electrospray ionisation (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS) suitable for the determination of senicapoc in plasma samples. Unfortunately, direct analysis of senicapoc in crude acetonitrile extracts of human plasma samples by UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS was subjected to significant and variable ion suppression from coeluting phospholipids (PLs). The interferences were mainly caused by the presence of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine classes of PLs, including their lyso-products. However, the PLs were easily removed from crude extracts by filtration through a sorbent with Lewis acid properties which decreased the total ion suppression effect to approximately 5%. Based on this technique, a simple high-throughput UHPLC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of senicapoc in 100-μL plasma samples. The lower limit of quantification was 0.1 ng/mL. The mean true extraction recovery was close to 100 %. The relative intra-laboratory reproducibility standard deviations of the measured concentrations were 8% and 4% at concentrations of 0.1 ng/mL and 250 ng/mL, respectively. The trueness expressed as the relative bias of the test results was within ± 2% at concentrations of 1 ng/mL or higher.