Ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for determination of Direct Acting Antiviral drugs in human liver fine needle aspirates

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the determination of direct acting antiviral drug concentrations in human liver fine needle aspirates. Liver fine needle aspirate (FNA) biopsy samples were homogenized in acetonitrile to stabilize the analytes and precipitate protein. The acetonitrile supernatants were diluted with internal standards and mobile phase. Separation was achieved with a Waters Acquity BEH C18 column (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 um) with a gradient elution of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile. The total run time was 4.25 min. Detection of analytes was achieved using electrospray ionization (positive mode) and triple quadrupole selected reaction monitoring. Standard curve concentrations ranged from 12.5 to 5000 ng/mL for dasabuvir and the m1 metabolite of dasabuvir, 1.25 to 2500 ng/mL for ombitasvir and ritonavir, and 5.00 to 5000 ng/mL for paritaprevir. The intra- and inter-day accuracy and precision were less than 13.7% in low, medium, and high quality control samples. The validated method was applied to the analysis of a liver fine needle aspirate of a patient undergoing direct acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus.