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Drug Discovery

Pharmacokinetic (PK) Assessment

Pharmacokinetics is the study of the time course of a chemical entity introduced into the body by various routes of administration e.g. intravenous, oral, subcutaneous. It is important to quantitatively measure drug concentrations at the site of action to understand the drug effect in the body. Custom LC-MS/MS methods are designed to measure concentrations of new chemical entities in plasma or other biological matrices. LC-triple quadrupole mass spectrometers are used. General PK calculations can be performed.

Basic principles of pharmacokinetics. Toxicologic Pathology,Benet LZ1, Zia-Amirhosseini P. 1995; Mar-Apr;23(2):115-123

Primary Metabolite Profiling/Metabolite Identification

We perform microsome incubations for metabolite profiling and metabolite identification. In vivo metabolite profiling can also be performed using biological matrices collected during non-clinical or clinical studies (e.g. urine).  Full scan and fragmentation of metabolites and parent are performed to assist in structure elucidation. Metabolite identification is performed by interpreting high resolution MS data and low resolution MS/MS fragmentation. Data analysis and metabolite ID data reports are prepared upon completion of experiment.

Thiazolidinedione bioactivation: a comparison of the bioactivation potentials of troglitazone, rosiglitazone, and pioglitazone using stable isotope-labeled analogues and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Chemical Research in|
Toxicology, Alvarez-Sanchez R1, Montavon F, Hartung T, Pähler A. 2006 Aug;19(8):1106-16

Formulation Testing

We perform quantitation of active ingredients in drug formulation. Custom designed LC-MS methods utilizing calibration curves are applied to quantitation of active ingredient in drug formulation. LC-MS and MS/MS fragmentation are used for degradation product structure elucidation. Degradation product identification is performed by interpreting full scan MS and MS/MS fragmentation data from an ion trap mass spectrometer.

Structural Characterization/Elucidation

Full scan and fragmentation patterns of molecules of interest are obtained on an ion trap mass spectrometer to assist with structure characterization/elucidation. Data analysis and data reports are prepared upon completion of the experiment.