Pharmacokinetics, bioavailability and metabolism of cligosiban, an antagonist of oxytocin receptor, in rat by liquid chromatography hyphenated with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Cligosiban is a highly-affinity nonpeptide Oxytocin Receptor Antagonist. In this study, a simple an sensitive LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the determination of cligosiban in rat plasma. The plasma samples were pretreated with acetonitrile as precipitant and then separated on an ACQUITY BEH C₁₈ column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 μm) with 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile as mobile phase. The analytes were monitored using selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode with transitions at m/z 420.1→248.1 for cligosiban and m/z 304.1→161.1 for IS. The developed method showed good linearity over the concentration range of 1-1000 ng/mL with coefficient of correlation > 0.996. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) is 1 ng/mL. The method was validated for selectivity, precision, accuracy, recovery, and stability in accordance with FDA's guidance. The validated assay has been successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of cligosiban in rat plasma after intravenous and oral administration. According to the current results, the oral bioavailability of cligosiban was 63.82%. Furthermore, the metabolites present in rat liver microsomes (RLM), human liver microsomes (HLM) and rat plasma were analyzed by UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap-MS method, and four metabolites structurally identified based on their accurate masses, and fragment ions. The proposed metabolic pathways of cligosiban were demethylation and glucuronidation. This study is the first report on the pharmacokinetic and metabolic information of cligosiban, which would provide insights into the effectiveness and toxicity of cligosiban.