Physico-chemical characterization of liposomes and drug substance-liposome interactions in pharmaceutics using capillary electrophoresis and electrokinetic chromatography.

Liposomes are self-assembled phospholipid vesicles and have numerous research and therapeutic applications. In the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences liposomes find use as models of biological membranes, partitioning medium and as drug carriers. The present review addresses the use of capillary electrophoresis and liposome electrokinetic chromatography for the characterization of liposomes in a pharmaceutical context. Capillary electrophoretic techniques have been used for the measurement of electrophoretic mobility, which provides information on liposome surface charge, size and membrane permeability of liposomes. The use of liposome electrokinetic chromatography and capillary electrophoresis for determination of liposome/water partitioning and characterization of drug-liposome interactions is reviewed. A number of studies indicate that capillary electrophoresis may have a role in the characterization of liposome drug delivery systems, e.g., for the investigation of encapsulation efficiency and drug leakage. The well-known characteristics of capillary electrophoresis, i.e., low sample volume requirement, high separation efficiency in aqueous media without a stationary phase, minimal sample preparation, and a high degree of automation, makes it an attractive approach in liposome research.

Physicochemical characterization of a PEGylated liposomal drug formulation using capillary electrophoresis.

In this work, the applicability of using CE to perform a physicochemical characterization of a PEGylated liposomal drug formulation of the anti-cancer agent oxaliplatin was examined. Characterization of the liposomal drug formulation using CE instrumentation encompassed: determination of the electrophoretic mobilities, size determination by Taylor dispersion analysis and interaction studies. Electrophoretic mobilities determined by CE were compared with the results obtained by laser Doppler electrophoresis, which were found to be subject to larger variation. Average hydrodynamic diameters of the liposome preparations, as determined by Taylor dispersion analysis, were in the range of 61-84 nm and were compared with the results obtained by dynamic light scattering. Interactions between oxaliplatin (and paracetamol) and the PEGylated liposome were non-detectable by CE frontal analysis as well as by liposome electrokinetic chromatography. In contrast, for the more lipophilic compound propranolol, apparent liposome-aqueous phase distribution coefficients (D(lip) ) were successfully determined by both electrokinetic chromatography (log D(lip) =2.10) and by CE frontal analysis (log D(lip) =2.14). It is envisioned that CE and capillary-based techniques, including Taylor dispersion analysis, will be useful tools for the characterization of nanoparticulate (e.g. liposomal) drug formulations.

Characterization of a liposome-based formulation of oxaliplatin using capillary electrophoresis: encapsulation and leakage.

A capillary electrophoresis-based method to characterize a PEGylated liposomal drug formulation of the anti-cancer agent oxaliplatin was developed. Pharmaceutical characterization in terms of determination of the free and total oxaliplatin concentrations in the liposomal formulation was successfully performed allowing calculation of the percentage of encapsulated drug and encapsulation efficiency. The trapping efficiency was likewise calculated. The capillary electrophoresis method allowed liposome characterization in the intended formulation media (sucrose solution with low electrolyte concentration), and the attained results were consistent with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry measurements. Accelerated drug leakage studies were initiated by the sonication of the PEGylated formulation, using an ultrasound probe, subsequently the drug leakage was determined by capillary electrophoresis. The results obtained with the PEGylated liposomes demonstrate that capillary electrophoresis may be a useful tool for the characterization of liposomal drug formulations.

Determination of liposome-buffer distribution coefficients of charged drugs by capillary electrophoresis frontal analysis.

The potential of using CE frontal analysis (CE-FA) to study the interactions between a range of charged low molecular weight drug substances and liposomes was evaluated. The liposomes used were net negatively charged and consisted of 2-oleoyl-1-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphate monosodium salt in a ratio of 80/20 mol%. Apparent distribution coefficients (D(mem)), defined as the molar concentration of drug substance in the membrane phase divided by the molar concentration of drug substance in the aqueous phase, were successfully determined for six positively and eight negatively charged drug substances with log D(mem) ranging from 1.35 to 3.63. The extent of liposome-buffer distribution was found to be dependent on the drug concentration. The results obtained with the developed CE-FA method were in good agreement with results obtained by equilibrium dialysis. Furthermore, the CE-FA method was faster, less labor intensive and required smaller sample volumes (approximately 50 microL) compared with equilibrium dialysis. Thus, CE-FA is an efficient and useful tool for the characterization of interactions between liposomes and low molecular weight drug substances.