Validation and application of an assay for the determination of mevalonic acid in human plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

The validation of a method for the determination of mevalonic acid (MVA; after conversion to the lactone, MVAL) in human plasma, using high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS–MS), is reported. MVAL and deuterated internal standard were extracted from human plasma samples using automated solid-phase extraction. Analysis was conducted by column-switching, reversed-phase LC–MS–MS, using two hyper-cross-linked styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer sorbent reversed-phase columns. An assay range of 0.2–35 ng/ml and a lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of 0.2 ng/ml were achieved with acceptable accuracy and precision. MVA was stable in plasma under a variety of storage conditions.