Development of quantitative imaging mass spectrometry (q‐IMS) for drug visualization using animal tissues

Abstract

Quantitative imaging mass spectrometry (q‐IMS) is a frontier topic of research in drug analysis. Although many q‐IMS methodologies have been reported, validation of the method is insufficient. We have investigated the feasibility of coupling q‐IMS with liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS) to develop a verifiable method. The approach combines quantitative LC‐MS/MS information with the spatial distribution information obtained by IMS. This paper compares measured drug quantities with those estimated using IMS. The target drug, erlotinib, is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of non‐small‐cell lung cancer. The quantitative accuracy of our q‐IMS method in an animal model study is approximately 17%. Measurements were conducted on mouse liver and brain tissues before and after erlotinib administration. Erlotinib is delivered to the brain, although the concentration is 104 times smaller than that found in the liver.