Quantification of the janus kinase 1 inhibitor upadacitinib in human plasma by LC-MS/MS

Development and validation of a sensitive LC-MS/MS assay for determination of upadacitinib in human plasma and its application in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND

Upadacitinib is a selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1 inhibitor approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of moderate-to-severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to establish and validate a method for determining Upadacitinib in patients with IBD by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method.

METHODS

The mobile phase was 0.1 % formic acid: acetonitrile (35:65, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.40 mL/min. Upadacitinib and its internal standard Upadacitinib 15N, d2 were separated by a Waters Xbridge BEH C18 column (4.6 × 100 mm, 2.5 μm) and subjected to mass analysis using positive electrospray ionization (ESI).

RESULTS

The calibration range of Upadacitinib was 0.5-200 ng/mL with the correlation coefficient r2 ≥ 0.99. Accuracies ranged from -9.48 % ∼ 8.27 % and the inter- and intra-day precisions were less than 15 % for all analytes in quality control samples. There was no significant matrix effect. The range of extraction recoveries was 87.53-93.47 % for all analytes. Twenty-one plasma samples were obtained from the sixth affiliated hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. The median plasma concentration of Upadacitinib was 7.32 (0.56-26.78) ng/mL.

CONCLUSION

This newly developed method is sensitive, simple, and successfully applied in determining Upadacitinib in IBD patients to provide reference for safe and effective drug administration in clinical practice.

Sensitive and selective determination of upadacitinib using a custom-designed electrochemical sensor based on ZnO nanoparticle-assisted molecularly imprinted polymer

Upadacitinib (UPA) is a selective and reversible oral Janus kinase (JAK) 1 inhibitor and is of great importance in treating inflammatory bowel disease (Zheng et al., Int Immunopharmacol 126:111229, 2024; Foy et al., JAAD Case Rep 42:20-22, 2023). Although there are limitations to the effectiveness of UPA, it has received positive responses in clinical trials and is approved for the treatment of atopy dermatitis (AD) (Li et al., Int Immunopharmacol 125:111193, 2023). In this study, a nanoparticle-doped molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-based electrochemical sensor was developed for sensitive and selective detection of UPA. The developed sensor was designed as a thin film layer using the photopolymerization method on the surface of the prepared nanoparticle-doped polymerization solution glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Various nanoparticles, such as multi-walled carbon nanotube, titanium dioxide, oxide, and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles, were the most suitable for UPA. Surface characterization of the developed sensor was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electrochemical characterization was done by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The quantitative analysis of UPA was performed in 5.0 mM [Fe (CN)6]3-/4- solution using the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique. Under optimum conditions, the calibration range was between 0.1 and 1 pM. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were calculated as 0.005 pM and 0.017 pM, respectively. The sensor's accuracy was proven by performing a recovery study in serum. The sensor's selectivity was also evaluated using common interfering substances such as KNO3, CaCl2, Na2SO4, uric acid, ascorbic acid, dopamine, and paracetamol. According to the results obtained, the performance of the designed sensor was found to be quite sensitive and selective in determining UPA. The developed UPA-ZnO/3-APBA@MIP-GCE sensor showed high sensitivity and selectivity towards UPA. In addition, the selectivity, the most important feature of the MIP-based sensor, was confirmed by imprinting factor (IF) calculations using tofacitinib (TOF) and ruxolitinib (RUX). The sensor's unique selectivity is demonstrated by its successful performance even in the presence of UPA impurities.

A UPLC method development and validation study of Upadacitinib and its impurities in extended - release oral tablet dosage forms

OBJECTIVE

The primary objective was to develop a concomitant isocratic ultra-performance liquid chromatographic photo-diode array detection method to estimate Upadacitinib and its process-related impurities: impurity-1 and impurity-2. Further validation was conducted and studied for possible degradants under stress environments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

All the chemicals and reagents used were of HPLC (acetonitrile, methanol) and analytical grade (trifluoro acetic acid). The ultra-performance liquid chromatography (Agilent 1290 Infinity II LC system) consists of a quaternary pump, a BEH C18 (50×2.1mm, 1.7μ) column, and photo-diode array detector. The method was developed with acetonitrile: methanol: 0.1% v/v trifluoro acetic acid (50:20:30 v/v/v) mobile phase at 0.2mL/min flow rate within a run time of 5.5min The detection was carried at 231.2nm.

RESULTS

The respective retention times achieved were 2.289min (Upadacitinib), 0.972min (Upadacitinib impurity-1), and 3.508min (Upadacitinib impurity-2). The optimized method was validated further, and the linearity range was best fit at 15.0-180.0μg/mL for Upadacitinib and 1.0-12.0μg/mL for both Upadacitinib impurity-1 and 2 respectively. The detection and quantification limits were 4.50μg/mL, 15.00μg/mL (Upadacitinib) and 0.30μg/mL, 1.0μg/mL (Upadacitinib impurity-1 and 2).

CONCLUSION

A fast, isocratic, specific, and reproducible ultra-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for various parameters according to the ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines studies. Stress studies were conducted exposing the sample dilution to various treatments (acid, alkali, peroxide, HPLC water, heat, and UV light). The degradants were well-separated apart from the peaks of the active substance. The stability indicating nature was observed during the degradation. The optimized method can be applied for the separation and estimation of Upadacitinib and its process-related impurities in pharma sector in tablet dosage forms.

Development and validation of a multiplex HPLC-MS/MS assay for the monitoring of JAK inhibitors in patient plasma

Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi) are oral small molecules used in the treatment of a broad spectrum of autoimmune and myeloproliferative diseases. JAKi exhibit significant intra- and inter-individual pharmacokinetic variabilities, due to fluctuations in compliance with oral treatments and their metabolism essentially driven by cytochrome P450 enzymes. Intrinsically, JAKi have dose-response relationship and narrow therapeutic index: therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is expected to optimize and adapt their dosage regimen in order to resolve problems of efficacy and tolerance linked to dose and safety. A sensitive analytical method using multiplex high-performance liquid-chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification in plasma of the 6 major currently used JAKi, namely abrocitinib, baricitinib, fedratinib, ruxolitinib, tofacitinib, and upadacitinib. Plasma samples are subjected to protein precipitation with MeOH, using stable isotopically labelled internal standards. The separation of JAKi in supernatants diluted 1:1 with ultrapure H2O was performed using a C18 column Xselect HSS T3 2.5 µm, 2.1x150 mm using a mobile phase composed of formic acid (FA) 0.2% and acetonitrile (+FA 0.1%) in gradient mode. The analytical run time for the multiplex assay was 7 min. JAKi drugs were monitored by electrospray ionization in the positive mode followed by triple-stage quadrupole MS/MS analysis. The method was validated according to SFSTP and ICH guidelines over the clinically relevant concentration ranges (0.5-200 ng/mL for abrocitinib, baricitinib and upadacitinib; 1-400 ng/mL for tofacitinib; 0.5-400 ng/mL for ruxolitinib, and 10-800 ng/mL for fedratinib). This multiplex HPLC-MS/MS assay achieved good performances in term of trueness (91.1-113.5%), repeatability (3.0-9.9%), and intermediate precision (4.5-11.3%). We developed and validated a highly sensitive method for the multiplex quantification of the JAKi abrocitinib, baricitinib, fedratinib, ruxolitinib, tofacitinib, and upadacitinib in human plasma. The method will be applied for prospective clinical pharmacokinetic studies to determine whether TDM programs for JAKi based on residual drug concentrations can be recommended using disease-specific therapeutic ranges.