Development of Highly Sensitive Analytical Method for Evaluation of Evening Primrose Oil's Enhancing Effect in Prostaglandin E1(OP 1206) Biosynthesis

This study aimed to develop and validate highly sensitive determination method of a prostaglandin ($PGE_1$, OP 1206) in human plasma by LC-MS/MS using column switching. Plasma stored at $-30^{\circ}C$ and treated with methanol effectively inhibited interferences synthesized post-sampling. Samples were added with internal standard and were separated by reversed-phase HPLC with a cycle time of 30min. The method was selective for OP 1206 and the regression models, based on internal standard, were linear across the concentration range 0.5-50 pg/mL with the limit of quantification of 0.5 pg/mL (limit of quantitation, LOQ) for OP 1206. The calibration curve of OP 1206 standards spiked in five individual plasma samples was linear ($r^2=0.9999$). Accuracy and precision at the concentrations of 0.5, 1.5, 5.0 and 40 pg/mL, and at the lower LOQ of 0.5 pg/mL were excellent at 20%. OP120 < 6 was stable in plasma samples for at least 24 hours at room temperature, 24 hours frozen at $-70^{\circ}C$, 24 hours in an auto sampler at $6^{\circ}C$, and for two freeze/unfreezing cycles. The validated determination method successfully quantified the concentrations of OP 1206 in plasma samples from simulated administrating a single $5{\mu}g$ OP 1206 formulation. Thus, this novel LC-MS/MS technique for drug separation, detection and quantitation is expected to become the standard highly-sensitive detection method in bioanalysis and to be applied to many low dose pharmaceutical products.