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.

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.

Enantioseparation of nuarimol by affinity electrokinetic chromatography-partial filling technique using human serum albumin as chiral selector.

The present paper deals with the enantiomeric separation of nuarimol enantiomers by affinity EKC-partial filling technique using HSA as chiral selector. Firstly, a study of nuarimol interactions with HSA by CE-frontal analysis was performed. The binding parameters obtained for the first site of interaction were n(1) = 0.84; K(1) = 9.7 +/- 0.3x10(3 )M(-1) and the protein binding percentage of nuarimol at physiological concentration of HSA was 75.2 +/- 0.2%. Due to the moderate affinity of nuarimol towards HSA the possibility of using this protein as chiral selector for the separation of nuarimol using the partial filling technique was evaluated. A multivariate optimization approach of the most critical experimental variables in enantioresolution, running pH, HSA concentration and plug length was carried out. Separation of nuarimol enantiomers was obtained under the following selected conditions: electrophoretic buffer composed of 50 mM Tris at pH 7.3; 160 muM HSA solution applied at 50 mbar for 156 s as chiral selector; nuarimol solutions in the range of 2-8x10(-4) M injected hydrodynamically at 30 mbar for 2 s and the electrophoretic runs performed at 30 degrees C applying 15 kV voltage. Resolution, accuracy, reproducibility speed and cost of the proposed method make it suitable for quality control of the enantiomeric composition of nuarimol in formulations and for further toxicological studies. The results showed a different affinity between nuarimol enantiomers towards HSA.

Potential of human serum albumin as chiral selector of basic drugs in affinity electrokinetic chromatography-partial filling technique.

The enantiomeric resolution of compounds using HSA by means of affinity EKC (AEKC)-partial filling technique is the result of a delicate balance between different experimental variables such as protein concentration, running pH (background electrophoretic buffer (BGE), protein, and compound solutions), and plug length. In this paper, the possibility of using HSA as chiral selector for enantioseparation of 28 basic drugs using this methodology is studied. The effect of the physicochemical parameters, the structural properties of compounds, and compound-HSA protein binding percentages over their chiral resolution with HSA is outlined. Based on the results obtained, a decision tree is proposed for the "a priori" prediction of the capability of HSA for enantioseparation of basic drugs in AEKC. The results obtained indicated that enantioresolution of basic compounds with HSA depends on the hydrophobicity, polarity, and molar volume of compounds.

Characterization of basic drug-human serum protein interactions by capillary electrophoresis.

Drug-protein interactions are determining factors in the therapeutic, pharmacodynamic and toxicological drug properties. The affinity of drugs towards plasmatic proteins is apparently well established in bibliography. Albumin (HSA) especially binds neutral and negatively charged compounds; alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) binds many cationic drugs, lipoproteins bind to nonionic and lipophilic drugs and some anionic drugs while globulins interact inappreciably with the majority of drugs. In this paper, the characterization of the interaction between cationic drugs, beta-blockers and phenotiazines towards HSA, AGP, and both HSA + AGP mixtures of proteins under physiological conditions by CE-frontal analysis is presented. Furthermore, the binding of these drugs to all plasmatic proteins is evaluated by using ultrafiltration and CE. The results indicate that the hydrophobic character of compounds seems to be the key factor on the interaction between cationic drugs towards proteins. In fact, hydrophobic basic drugs bind in great extension to HSA, while hydrophilic basic drugs present low interactions with proteins and bind especially to AGP.

Multivariate optimization approach for chiral resolution of drugs using human serum albumin in affinity electrokinetic chromatography-partial filling technique.

The enantiomeric resolution of chiral compounds using HSA by means of affinity EKC (AEKC)-partial filling technique is the result of a delicate balance between different experimental variables such as protein concentration, running pH (background electrophoretic buffer, protein and compound solutions) and protein solution plug length. In this paper multivariate optimization approaches for chiral separation of four basic drugs (alprenolol, oxprenolol, promethazine and propranolol) using HSA as chiral selector in AEKC-partial filling technique are studied. The experimental conditions to achieve maximum resolution are optimized using the Box-Behnken experimental design. Partial least squares and pareto charts are used to analyse the main effects on the resolution. The experimental resolutions observed for all compounds studied in optimum conditions agree with the estimated values based on response surface models. The results obtained show that the range of experimental conditions that provided enantioresolution narrows as hydrophobicity of analytes decreases. This fact can be explained by assuming that hydrophobicity controls the interaction of basic compounds with HSA.

High-throughput capillary electrophoresis frontal analysis method for the study of drug interactions with human serum albumin at near-physiological conditions.

The application of the short-end capillary injection to capillary electrophoresis frontal analysis (CE-FA) to study the interaction between basic, neutral and acid drugs towards human serum albumin (HSA) at near-physiological conditions is presented. The compounds selected display a wide range of binding affinities and the results obtained were in good agreement with those reported in the literature. An equation for the estimation of the number of primary binding sites and their corresponding affinity constants is developed isolating the experimentally measured variables in just one axis. The proposed CE-FA method to screen drug interactions with HSA under physiological conditions is simple, rapid and cost-effective what may facilitate its implementation in the drug discovery process.