Evaluation of the enantioselective binding of imazalil to human serum albumin by capillary electrophoresis.

In this work, a methodology for the evaluation of enantioselective binding of imazalil (IMA) enantiomers to human serum albumin (HSA) that does not require the separation of free and bound to HSA fractions is developed. This methodology comprises the incubation of IMA-HSA designed mixtures for 30 min directly in the capillary electrophoresis system and the subsequent direct injection and chiral separation of IMA employing highly sulfated ß-cyclodextrin as chiral selector and the complete filling technique. Two mathematical approaches were used to estimate apparent affinity constants (K1), protein binding and enantioselectivity (ES) for both enantiomers of IMA. Moderate enantioselective binding of IMA enantiomers to HSA (ES = 2.0) was shown by the 1:1 stoichiometry and log K1 values of 3.4 ± 0.4 and 3.1 ± 0.3 for the first and second eluted enantiomers, respectively.

Characterizing the interaction between enantiomers of eight psychoactive drugs and highly sulfated-ß-cyclodextrin by counter-current capillary electrophoresis.

The estimation of apparent binding constants and limit mobilities of the complexes of the enantiomers that characterize the interaction of enantiomers with chiral selectors, in this case highly sulfated ß-cyclodextrin, was approached using a simple and economic electrophoretic modality, the complete filling technique (CFT) in counter-current mode. The enantiomers of eight psychoactive drugs, four antihistamines (dimethindene, promethazine, orphenadrine and terfenadine) and four antidepressants (bupropion, fluoxetine, nomifensine and viloxazine) were separated for the first time for this cyclodextrin (CD). Estimations of thermodynamic and electrophoretic enantioselectivies were also performed. Results indicate that, in general, thermodynamic enantioselectivity is the main component explaining the high resolution found, but also one case suggests that electrophoretic enantioselectivity itself is enough to obtain a satisfactory resolution. CFT results advantageous compared with conventional capillary electrophoresis (CE) and partial filling technique (PFT) for the study of the interaction between drugs and chiral selectors. It combines the use of a simple fitting model (as in CE), when the enantiomers do not exit the chiral selector plug during the separation (i.e. mobility of electroosmotic flow larger than mobility of CD), and drastic reduction of the consumption (and cost; ~99.7%) of the CD reagent (as in PFT) compared with the conventional CE.

Fast evaluation of enantioselective drug metabolism by electrophoretically mediated microanalysis: application to fluoxetine metabolism by CYP2D6.

In this work, a capillary electrophoretic methodology for the enantioselective in vitro evaluation of drugs metabolism is applied to the evaluation of fluoxetine (FLX) metabolism by cytochrome 2D6 (CYP2D6). This methodology comprises the in-capillary enzymatic reaction and the chiral separation of FLX and its major metabolite, norfluoxetine enantiomers employing highly sulfated ß-CD and the partial filling technique. The methodology employed in this work is a fast way to obtain a first approach of the enantioselective in vitro metabolism of racemic drugs, with the additional advantage of an extremely low consumption of enzymes, CDs and all the reagents involved in the process. Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters (Km and Vmax ) for the metabolism of FLX enantiomers by CYP2D6 have been estimated by nonlinear fitting of experimental data to the Michaelis-Menten equation. Km values have been found to be 30 ± 3 µM for S-FLX and 39 ± 5 µM for R-FLX. Vmax estimations were 28.6 ± 1.2 and 34 ± 2 pmol·min(-1) ·(pmol CYP)(-1) for S- and R-FLX, respectively. Similar results were obtained using a single enantiomer (R-FLX), indicating that the use of the racemate is a good option for obtaining enantioselective estimations. The results obtained show a slight enantioselectivity in favor of R-FLX.

Determination of fluoxetine enantiomers in pharmaceutical formulations by electrokinetic chromatography-counter current technique.

In this work, an electrokinetic chromatography-counter current procedure for the separation of fluoxetine enantiomers using highly sulfated ß-cyclodextrin was optimized and applied to the determination of the enantiomers in three pharmaceutical formulations according to the matrix features. Quality criteria were applied to facilitate its transferability to testing laboratories. Fluoxetine was used therapeutically as the racemate, although a stereospecificity associated with its interactions with the neuronal serotonin-uptake carrier was demonstrated. In this context, the development of enantioselective methods for the chiral analysis of pharmaceuticals allowing stereoisomer ratio estimations has increasing interest in pharmaceutical industry. The proposed method allows the quantification of both enantiomers in less than 2 min with high resolution (R(s) = 2.4).

Electrokinetic chromatographic estimation of the enantioselective binding of nomifensine to human serum albumin and total plasma proteins.

This report is the first evidence of enantioselective binding of nomifensine to human serum albumin (HSA) and plasma proteins. The overall process with HSA included: (i) consistent experimental design along two independent sessions; (ii) incubation of nomifensine-HSA designed mixtures; (iii) ultrafiltration for separating the unbound enantiomers fraction; (iv) electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) using heptakis-2,3,6-tri-O-methyl-ß-cyclodextrin as chiral selector to provide experimental data for enantiomers (first, E1, and second, E2, eluted ones); and (v) a recent direct equation allowing univariate tests and robust statistics to provide consistent parameters and uncertainty. A significant enantioselectivity to HSA (2.7 ± 0.1) was encountered, related to a 1:1 stoichiometry and log affinity constants of 3.24 ± 0.10 and 3.67 ± 0.08 for E1 and E2, respectively. The protein binding (PB) estimated at physiological concentration levels was 40 ± 5 and 63 ± 4% for E1 and E2, respectively. The use of synthetic human sera allowed in vitro estimation of the total plasma PB for the racemate (61 ± 5%; coincident with in vivo values), and its enantiomers (58 ± 7 and 64 ± 4% for E1 and E2, respectively). Comparison allowed the relative importance of HSA respect to other plasma proteins for binding nomifensine to be established.

Evaluation of enantioselective binding of fluoxetine to human serum albumin by ultrafiltration and CE--experimental design and quality considerations.

Several pharmacokinetic processes are affected by enantioselectivity (ES). At the level of distribution, protein binding (PB) is one of the most important. The enantioselective binding of fluoxetine (FLX) to HSA has been evaluated in this work by ultrafiltration of FLX­HSA mixtures and chiral analysis of unbound fractions by EKC-CD. PB, affinity constants (K) and ES were obtained for both enantiomers of FLX. In order to improve the consistency of the estimations, the evaluation of affinity constants of each enantiomer was performed using two designs, one keeping constant the total concentration of protein and varying the total concentration of the enantiomers, and the other in the opposite way, in both cases via an unusual short-concentration interval strategy to assure model validity. Different mathematical approaches were compared and characterised and some of them, judged as the most consistent under the experimental conditions used, were selected to provide final estimates. Quality considerations include criteria for three critical aspects: (i) detecting/eliminating outliers, (ii) checking the number of binding sites in the protein and (iii) evaluating the robustness of each approach. The differences on estimates from the selected approaches were used as an uncertainty source to delimit the reported values. The ES of HSA for FLX enantiomers was approximate. Estimates include the assumptions of independent and competitive models. In the last case, a SIMPLEX function was designed capable of simultaneously optimizing the non-linear binding models for both enantiomers, thus improving the consistence of results.

Screening of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors by CE after enzymatic reaction at capillary inlet.

In this study the development of a procedure based on capillary electrophoresis after enzymatic reaction at capillary inlet methodology for the screening and in vitro evaluation of the biological activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors is presented. The progress of the enzymatic reaction of the hydrolysis of acetylthiocholine at pH 8 in the presence of AChE and the inhibitor studied is determined by measuring at 230 nm the peak area of the reaction product thiocholine (TCh). In the method employed the capillary was first filled with 30 mM borate-phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) and subsequently, plugs of: (i) water, (ii) AChE solution, (iii) substrate solution with or without inhibitor, (iv) AChE solution, and (v) water, were hydrodynamically injected into the capillary, and were allowed to stand (and react) during a waiting period of 2 min. The applicability of the proposed methodology to estimate different kinetic parameters of interest such as inhibition constants K(i), identification of inhibitory action mechanism and IC(50), is evaluated using compounds with known activity, tacrine edrophonium, and neostigmine. The results obtained are compared with bibliographic values and confirm the effectiveness of the methodology proposed. Finally a method for AChE Inhibitor screening is proposed.