Development of an LC-MS/MS method for quantitative analysis of Chlorogenic acid in human plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study in Chinese patients with advanced solid tumor

A simple and specific, rapid resolution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method was developed and validated for determination of chlorogenic acid in human plasma using neochlorogenic acid as the internal standard. Plasma samples were precipitated with methanol and separated on a Zorbax C18 column (50 × 2.1 mm, i.d. 1.8 μm) at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min using a gradient mobile phase of methanol-water containing 0.1% formic acid (v/v). The detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer by multiple reaction monitoring in negative ESI mode. The method was fully validated over the concentration range of 10–2000 ng/mL. The indicators of inter- and intra-day precision (RSD%) were all within 10.7%, and the accuracy (RE%) was ranged from -3.0% to 10.6%. Moreover, we evaluated this bioanalytical method by re-analysis of incurred samples as an additional measure of assay reproducibility. This method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study of CGA in Chinese subjects with advanced solid tumor after intramuscular injection administration of Chlorogenic acid for injection (CAFI).