Simultaneous Analysis of Nicotine, Nicotine Metabolites, and Tobacco Alkaloids in Serum or Urine by Tandem Mass Spectrometry, with Clinically Relevant Metabolic Profiles

Abstract

Background: Assessment of nicotine metabolism and disposition has become an integral part of nicotine dependency treatment programs. Serum nicotine concentrations or urine cotinine concentrations can be used to guide nicotine patch dose to achieve biological concentrations adequate to provide the patient with immediate relief from nicotine withdrawal symptoms, an important factor in nicotine withdrawal success. Absence of nicotine metabolites and anabasine can be used to document abstinence from tobacco products, an indicator of treatment success. Methods: The procedure was designed to quantify nicotine, cotinine, trans-3′-hydroxycotinine, anabasine, and nornicotine in human serum or urine. The technique required simple extraction of the sample with quantification by HPLC–tandem mass spectrometry. Results: The procedure for simultaneous analysis of nicotine, its metabolites, and tobacco alkaloids simultaneously quantified five different analytes. Test limit of quantification, linearity, imprecision, and accuracy were adequate for clinical evaluation of patients undergoing treatment for tobacco dependency. The test readily distinguished individuals who had no exposure to tobacco products from individuals who were either passively exposed or were abstinent past-tobacco users from those who were actively using a tobacco or nicotine product. Conclusions: Nicotine, cotinine, trans-3′-hydroxycotinine, nornicotine, and anabasine can be simultaneously and accurately quantified in either serum or urine by HPLC–tandem mass spectrometry with imprecision <10% at physiologic concentrations and limits of quantification ranging from 0.5 to 5 μg/L. Knowledge of serum or urine concentrations of these analytes can be used to guide nicotine replacement therapy or to assess tobacco abstinence in nicotine dependency treatment. These measurements are now an integral part of the clinical treatment and management of patients who wish to overcome tobacco dependence.

Nicotine and metabolites determination in human plasma by ultra performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry: a simple approach for solving contamination problem and clinical application

“…The majority of existing HPLC/ESI-MS-MS methods uses aqueous phase at acid pH for best ionization: formic acid, formic acid-ammonium formate buffers or acetic acid-ammonium acetate buffer [7,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. But, these mobile phases did not often allow good separation Nicotine UPLC/MS-MS determination of the analytes [17,18] or the analysis time was relatively long [13][14][15][16].…”

“…Several methods have been developed for analysis of nicotine and its metabolites in biological samples. Gas chromatography (GC-MS) [4][5][6] and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) [7][8][9] or with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) have been described [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

The detection of nicotine in a Late Mayan period flask by gas chromatography and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry methods

“…The mobile phase was delivered using an Agilent 1200 binary pump working in isocratic mode. The solvent was prepared according to Moyer et al . and consisted of 450 mL of acetonitrile, 50 mL water, 0.325 g ammonium formate and 4.25 mL of 99% formic acid.…”

Low acetylcholine during early sleep is important for motor memory consolidation

“…The doses were chosen based on studies that have examined the effect of nicotine and oxotremorine on rodents (Power AE et al 2003). The half-life has been reported as 100 minutes for oxotremorine and 1.5-2 hours for nicotine (Moyer TP et al 2002;Marchand M et al 2017). The drugs were administered at the end of training on Training Day.…”