At present, therapeutic drug monitoring is the standard in pharmacotherapy using medications with a narrow therapeutic index or showing serious adverse effects, such as in the case of ibrutinib. A technique commonly used for this purpose is liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry combined with isotope dilution in sample processing.
Although this method provides a high degree of reliability, its use can be complicated with some specific factors and does not guarantee trouble-free analysis. This paper is focused on investigating issues related to the differential adsorption of ibrutinib and its D4, D5 and 13C6 isotopically labeled analogues combined with instrument-specific carry-over.
The results of the research point out the significantly different adsorption behavior of ibrutinib in fluidics of LC-MS compared with that of its D4, D5 and 13C6 stable isotope labeled analogues, showing preferential adsorption of non-labeled compound. The investigation also pointed to a strong affinity of ibrutinib to polymeric surfaces under specific conditions, which has to be taken into consideration during sample preparation and analysis.
Our work opens a new field for the discussion of scarcely reported problem related to the use of stable isotope labeled internal standards in LC-MS/MS analysis.