Development of a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the determination of the neurotoxic quinolinic acid in human serum.

Background: Quinolinic acid (QA) is thought to be one of the most important metabolites of the kynurenine pathway with the highest biological activity in apoptotic responses and neurodegenerative diseases. The determination of QA might be of clinical relevance in different patient groups, but currently, only a few laborious methods with high levels of sample volume consumption are available.

Methods: We developed and validated a simple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-tandem MS) method for the determination of QA in human serum with low sample volume requirements.