Ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of atypical antipsychotics and some metabolites in in vitro samples

The ultra-performance™ liquid chromatography–electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–ESI-MS/MS) method has been developed to perform the determination of quetiapine, perospirone, aripiprazole and quetiapine sulfoxide in in vitro samples in less than 3 min. The UPLC separation was carried out using an Acquity UPLC™ BEH C18 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm i.d., 1.7 μm particle size) that provided high efficiency and resolution in combination with high linear velocities. The UPLC system was coupled to a Waters Micromass Quattro Premier XE tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer. This system permits high-speed data acquisition without peak intensity degradation, and produces sharp and narrow chromatographic peaks (whwh about 2.5 s) of compounds. The determination was performed in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The quantification parameters of the developed method were established, obtaining instrumental LODs lower than 0.005 μg/l and a repeatability at a low concentration level lower than 10% CV (n = 10). Finally, the method was successfully applied to the analysis of atypical antipsychotics and some metabolites in in vitro samples.