Analytical and clinical validation of an LC-MS/MS method to measure thiopurine S-methyltransferase activity by quantifying d3-6-MMP.

Background: Identification of patients with thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) deficiency prior to thiopurine drug therapy has become routine clinical practice worldwide. To measure TPMT activity, traditional radiochemical assays have been replaced by chromatographic methods.

Method: Inspired by the increasing number of isotope labelled sources that may be of benefit for the TPMT assay, a new LC-MS/MS method for TPMT activity was developed and validated. Isotope labelled d3-S-adenosyl-l-methionine (d3-SAM) was selected for the enzymatic methylation of mercaptopurine during sample incubation; d3-6-methylmercaptopurine (d3-6-MMP) with d2-2, 8-hypoxanthine as the internal standard was quantified to ascertain individual TPMT activity.

Results: The validation of the analytical part of this method showed good linearity (coefficient of determination 0.9999 in the range of 1-500 ng/mL) with the intra-and inter-day impression CV% between 7.6% and 9.1% and 3.7% and 9.2%, respectively. Recovery ranged from 94.9% to 112.3%. The specificity of the enzymatic reaction was validated by using 108 clinical check samples. After compared with traditional radiochemical assay and genotype results, all homozygous and heterozygous deficiency clinical checks fitted into the nominal groups, inter-batch and intra-batch impression CV% were between 2.3% and 9.7%.

Conclusion: With the inclusion of isotope labelled substrate, interfering non-enzymatic methylation no longer results in potential false assignment of abnormal patients. Furthermore, the method can be applied to patients who have already been prescribed thiopurine drugs. This new LC-MS/MS is therefore a favourable clinical routine application to test TPMT activity, as it shows excellent performance in identifying patients with TPMT deficiency.