LC/MS/MS Analysis of Immunosuppressants from Whole Blood

using Aeris™ WIDEPORE XB-C18 Core-Shell HPLC/UHPLC Columns

Introduction

Cyclosporine A, tacrolimus, sirolimus, and everolimus are four of the most commonly administered immunosuppressant drugs and play a central role in the success of tissue and organ transplants. These drugs are most typically analyzed from whole blood using LC/MS/MS. However, because of the analytical challenges posed when working with whole blood, many of the published methods rely upon complex and/or expensive extraction steps utilizing offline solid phase extraction, on-line solid phase extraction, or the use of pre-columns prior to the actual analytical column. In this current work, we present a rapid and effective method for the analysis of these four immunosuppressants from whole blood that use a simple protein precipitation step followed by direct injection onto a wide-pore core-shell HPLC column (Aeris WIDEPORE 3.6 μm XB-C18). The method displays excellent accuracy and is sensitive down to the low μg/L (ng/mL) range.