Development of an UPLC-MS/MS Assay to Determine Psoralidin in Rat Plasma and its Application in a Pharmacokinetic Study after Intragastric Administration

Abstract

Psoralidin has a variety of pharmacological activities, such as anti-tumor, anti-depressant, and anti-inflammatory activities. This study aims at developing a rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method to determine psoralidin in rat plasma and studying the pharmacokinetic characteristic of psoralidin after intragastric administration of 20 and 40 mg/kg. Alpinetin was used as an internal standard (IS), and the plasma samples were precipitated with acetonitrile. The calibration curves were linear over the range of 0.2-250 ng/mL (R2 = 0.993). The pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by DAS 3.0. Half-life (t1/2) was 7.2 ± 0.97 h and 7.1 ± 0.27 h for different dosages, respectively. Tmax was 4.2 ± 1.1 h and 4.0 ± 1.1 h for different dosages, respectively. Apparent volume of distribution (Vd) for different dosages was 630.1 ± 168.8 and 600.1 ± 138.8 L/kg, respectively. Clearance (CL) was 105.6 ± 29.2 and 100.6 ± 22.2 L/h/kg for different dosages, indicating that psoralidin was mainly distributed in rat tissues. The pharmacokinetic study provided important information for further clinical application in the treatment of cancer and osteoporosis.