Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution model of cabozantinib in rat determined by UPLC–MS/MS

•A LC–MS determination method of cabozantinib in plasma and tissues was developed.•The pharmacokinetic study of cabozantinib in rats was investigated.•The distribution of cabozantinib in tissues was studied.•A BP-ANN tissue distribution model of cabozantinib in rat was developed. Cabozantinib (XL184) is a novel small molecule inhibitor of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) targeted at mesenchymal–epithelial transition factor (MET). In order to study the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution in rat, a specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method was developed with midazolam as internal standard. The calibration curves in plasma and tissues were linear in the range of 5–5000ng/mL (r2>0.99). The recoveries were better than 80.4% and matrix effects ranged from 96.9% to 105.1%. Then, the developed UPLC–MS/MS method was applied to determine the concentration of XL184 in blood and tissues. The pharmacokinetics of four different dosages (iv 5, 10mg/kg and ig 15, 30mg/kg) revealed that XL184 was eliminated slowly, the t1/2 was longer than 10h and the absolute bioavailability was 25.6±8.3%. The concentration distribution of XL184 in tissues was liver>lung>kidney>spleen>heart. Based on the concentration–time of XL184 in tissues, a BP-ANN distribution model was developed with good performance, and can be used to predict the concentration of XL184 in tissues.