Automation of tacrolimus measurement on volumetric absorptive microsampling devices by tandem mass spectrometry

Anatune

20th April 2023

After a kidney transplant, many patients take a drug called tacrolimus to help prevent their new kidney from being rejected. Blood levels of tacrolimus are checked regularly to ensure each patient is receiving the correct dose. This means regular visits to the hospital for blood tests, which can be inconvenient and time-consuming for the patient. Microsampling devices are now available that would enable patients to collect blood from a finger prick sample, at home, and post it back to the lab for testing. However, to date, access to home sampling is limited because measuring tacrolimus from blood collected on a microsampling device relies on a manual laboratory process that is difficult to do and takes a long time.

Measurement of tacrolimus from blood collected on a microsampling device can be successfully automated with a Gerstel MPS robot. The robot extracts the tacrolimus from the blood on the microsampling device and injects the resulting sample into a mass spectrometer for measurement. Two sets of microsamples were prepared. One set of samples was extracted by the robot and one set of VAMS samples was extracted manually. Tacrolimus was measured by mass spectrometry for both sets of samples and the results compared well. The automated method requires less operator input than the manual method, making it easier to measure large numbers of microsamples quickly and safely, increasing the number of patients who can benefit from the advantages of remote sampling.

Read the paper our SMEs worked on over on the National Library of Medicine: Automation of tacrolimus measurement on volumetric absorptive microsampling devices by tandem mass spectrometry.