Determination of the optical purity of timolol maleate by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a chiral Pr(III) shift reagent

Development of mucoadhesive Timolol loaded chitosan-nanocomposite to treat glaucoma

Timolol Maleate is an aqueous soluble β-blocker antiglaucoma drug used to suppress intraocular pressure. Several commercially available ocular formulations are not effective in delivering to the target site due to their water-soluble property and low mucoadhesiveness. Hence, there is a requirement for a highly mucoadhesive drug-loaded nanocomposite to suppress intraocular pressure with enhanced bioavailability. Herein, we have prepared a mucoadhesive Timolol-loaded graphene quantum dot-chitosan-nanocomposite to treat glaucoma in response to lysozyme, secreted in the tear fluid. The as-prepared nanocomposite has been characterized through high resolution-transmission electron microscopic, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectral studies. The nanocomposite showed 93.74 % encapsulation efficiency with a loading capacity of 7.73 %. Further, 89.26 %, 95.62 %, and 99.29 % of drug release were observed from the nanocomposite in the presence of 1, 1.5, and 2 mg/mL of lysozyme. The mucoadhesion property has been confirmed by the increment in the particle size, fluorescence spectral variations, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic studies in the presence of mucin nanoparticles of size 291 nm. Interestingly, mucoadhesion has been demonstrated by pointing to the quenching in the luminescence of mucin. Further, in vitro biocompatibility assay on human corneal epithelial cells showed ≥80 % cell viability. Hence, this study offers the utilization of naturally secreting enzymes for drug delivery applications instead of uncontrolled pH and temperature-triggered releases.

Quantitative NMR (qNMR) for pharmaceutical analysis: The pioneering work of George Hanna at the US FDA

In the last two decades, quantitative NMR (qNMR) has become increasingly important for the analysis of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and natural products including dietary supplements. For the purpose of quality control and chemical standardization of a large variety of pharmaceutical, chemical, and medicinal products, qNMR has proven to be a valuable orthogonal quantification method and a compelling alternative to chromatographic techniques. This work reviews a fundamental component of the early development of qNMR, reflected in the pioneering work of the late George M. Hanna during the years between 1984 and 2006 at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Because Hanna performed the majority of his groundbreaking work on a 90-MHz instrument, his legacy output connects with recent progress in low-field benchtop NMR instrumentation. Hanna gradually established the utility of qNMR for the routine quality control analyses practiced in pharmaceutical and related operations well ahead of his peers. His work has the potential to inspire new developments in qNMR applied to small molecules of biomedical importance.

The application of absolute quantitative (1)H NMR spectroscopy in drug discovery and development

INTRODUCTION

The identification of a drug candidate and its structural determination is the most important step in the process of the drug discovery and for this, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is one of the most selective analytical techniques.

AREA COVERED

The present review illustrates the various perspectives of absolute quantitative (1)H NMR spectroscopy in drug discovery and development. It deals with the fundamentals of quantitative NMR (qNMR), the physiochemical properties affecting qNMR, and the latest referencing techniques used for quantification. The precise application of qNMR during various stages of drug discovery and development, namely natural product research, drug quantitation in dosage forms, drug metabolism studies, impurity profiling and solubility measurements is elaborated. To achieve this, the authors explore the literature of NMR in drug discovery and development between 1963 and 2015. It also takes into account several other reviews on the subject.

EXPERT OPINION

qNMR experiments are used for drug discovery and development processes as it is a non-destructive, versatile and robust technique with high intra and interpersonal variability. However, there are several limitations also. qNMR of complex biological samples is incorporated with peak overlap and a low limit of quantification and this can be overcome by using hyphenated chromatographic techniques in addition to NMR.

1H and 13C NMR characteristics of β-blockers

The β-blockers are important drugs and decades of clinical experience proved their high medical status. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no complete assignment of (1)H and (13)C NMR resonances of popular representatives: acebutolol, alpenolol, pindolol, timolol and propranolol and the published NMR data on carvedilol and atenolol are incorrect. Therefore, (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy was applied for the characterization of a series of β-adrenolytics: carvedilol (1), pindolol (2), alprenolol (3), acebutolol (4), atenolol (5), propranolol (6) and timolol (7). Two-dimensional NMR experiments (COSY, HMQC, HMBC, NOESY) allowed the unequivocal assignment of (1)H and (13)C spectra for solution (DMSO-d(6) ). Salts and bases can be easily distinguished based on (13)C chemical shifts which are within 65.0-65.5 ppm (OC2) and 46.9-47.0 (NC3) for hydrochlorides and larger, ca. 68.4 ppm (OC2) and 50.3-52.6 (NC3) for bases. NMR data of 1-7 should be included in pharmacopoeias.

Ketopinic acid and diisoproylideneketogulonic acid as chiral ion-pair selectors in capillary electrophoresis

1S,4R-(+)-ketopinic acid [(+)-KPA] has been introduced as a chiral selector for the separation of pharmacologically active amines by non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE). (+)-KPA gave enantioresolution for most of the compounds previously separated by 2R,3S,4R,5S-(-)-2,3:4,6-di-O-isopropylidene-2-keto-L-gulonic acid [(-)-DIKGA], but with a reversed migration order. A complete enantioresolution (Rs=4.2) was obtained for timolol, a compound that could not be resolved using (-)-DIKGA as the selector. Thus, (+)-KPA was evaluated for the enantiomeric purity determination of S-timolol. A method based on pre-concentration by transient isotachophoresis (tITP) provided a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.2% R-timolol in S-timolol samples. Because of the lack of enantioresolution of ephedrine when (+)-KPA was used as the selector, a method with (-)-DIKGA has been developed and validated for determination of the enantiomeric purity of the 1R,2S enantiomer. The method gave good precision and accuracy with an LOD (S/N=3) of 0.033% for the enantiomeric impurity 1S,2R-ephedrine.

Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis method for the enantiomeric purity determination of S-timolol using heptakis(2,3-di-O-methyl-6-O-sulfo)-beta-cyclodextrin: validation using the accuracy profile strategy and estimation of uncertainty

Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) was successfully applied to the enantiomeric purity determination of S-timolol maleate using heptakis(2,3-di-O-methyl-6-O-sulfo)-beta-cyclodextrin (HDMS-beta-CD) as chiral selector. With a background electrolyte made up of a methanolic solution of 0.75 M formic acid, 30 mM potassium camphorsulfonate and containing 30 mM HDMS-beta-CD, the determination of 0.1% of R-timolol in S-timolol could be performed with an enantiomeric resolution of 8.5. Pyridoxine was selected as internal standard. The NACE method was then fully validated by applying a novel strategy using accuracy profiles. It is based on beta-expectation tolerance intervals for the total measurement error which includes trueness and intermediate precision. The uncertainty of measurements derived from beta-expectation tolerance intervals was estimated at each concentration level of the validation standards. To confirm the suitability of the developed and validated method, several real samples of S-timolol maleate containing R-timolol maleate at different concentrations were analysed and the results were compared to those obtained by liquid chromatography.

Quantitative 1H NMR: development and potential of a method for natural products analysis

Based on a brief revision of what constitutes state-of-the-art "quantitative experimental conditions" for (1)H quantitative NMR (qHNMR), this comprehensive review contains almost 200 references and covers the literature since 1982 with emphasis on natural products. It provides an overview of the background and applications of qHNMR in natural products research, new methods such as decoupling and hyphenation, and analytical potential and limitations, and compiles information on reference materials used for and studied by qHNMR. The dual status of natural products, being single chemical entities and valuable biologically active agents that need to be purified from complex matrixes, results in an increased analytical demand when testing their deviation from the singleton composition ideal. The outcome and versatility of reported applications lead to the conclusion that qHNMR is currently the principal analytical method to meet this demand. Considering both 1D and 2D (1)H NMR experiments, qHNMR has proved to be highly suitable for the simultaneous selective recognition and quantitative determination of metabolites in complex biological matrixes. This is manifested by the prior publication of over 80 reports on applications involving the quantitation of single natural products in plant extracts, dietary materials, and materials representing different metabolic stages of (micro)organisms. In summary, qHNMR has great potential as an analytical tool in both the discovery of new bioactive natural products and the field of metabolome analysis.

Spectrophotometric methods for determination of enalapril and timolol in bulk and in drug formulations

Two simple and accurate spectrophotometric methods for determination of timolol and enalapril maleate are described. The first method is based on chelate formation with palladium(II) chloride in buffered medium. The second method is based on the formation of the colored complex between palladium(II), eosin, and the two cited drugs using methylcellulose as surfactant to increase the solubility and intensity of the formed complexes. Under optimum conditions the complexes showed maximum absorption at 369.4 nm and 362.8 nm for timolol and enalapril maleate, respectively, in the first method and 552.2 and 550.6 nm for the second method. Apparent molar absorptivities were 1.8 x 10(3) and 1.3 x 10(3) and Sandell's sensitivities were 5.9 x 10(-4) and 2.7 x 10(-4) for timolol and enalapril maleate in the first method; in the second method molar absorptivities were 2.8 x 10(4) and 1.1 x 10(4) while Sandell's constants were 9.1 x 10(-3) and 2.3 x 10(-3) for timolol and enalapril maleate. The solutions of the complexes obeyed Beer's law in the concentration ranges 20-200 micro g mL(-1) and 50-300 micro g mL(-1) for timolol and enalapril maleate, respectively. In the second method, because the reaction was more sensitive the ranges were reduced to 1.6-16 micro g mL(-1) for timolol 8-56 micro g mL(-1) for enalapril maleate. The proposed methods were applied to the determination of the two drugs in their pharmaceutical formulation.

Fenofibrate raw materials: HPLC methods for assay and purity and an NMR method for purity

HPLC methods for drug content and HPLC and NMR methods for related compounds in fenofibrate raw materials were developed. The HPLC methods resolved 11 known and six unknown impurities from the drug. The HPLC system was comprised of a Waters Symmetry ODS column (100 x 4.6 mm, 3.5 microm), a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile water trifluoroacetic acid 700/300/l (v/v/v) at a flow rate of 1 ml min(-1). and a UV detector set at 280 nm. Minimum quantifiable amounts were about 0.1% for three of the compounds and less than 0.05% for the other eight. Individual impurities in 14 raw materials ranged from trace levels to 0.25%, and total impurities from 0.04 to 0.53% (w/w). Six unknown impurities were detected by HPLC, all at levels below 0.10%, assuming the same relative response as fenofibrate. An NMR method for related compounds was also developed and it was suitable for 12 known and several unknown impurities. It requires an NMR of 400 MHz, or greater, field strength. Individual impurities in the raw materials analyzed ranged from trace levels to 0.24%, and total impurities from trace levels to 0.59%. Several lots contained small amounts of unknown impurities at trace levels. Three lots, all from the same manufacturer, contained an unknown impurity, not detectable by HPLC, which was not present in the other raw materials. It was estimated to be present at a level greater than 0.2%. The results for related compounds by the two techniques were consistent. The main differences stem from the low sensitivity of the HPLC method for some of the related compounds at 280 nm, or from the higher limits of quantitation by the NMR method for several other impurities using the conditions specified. A fifteenth raw material was not homogeneous in its content of impurity VI, a synthetic intermediate and possible degradation product. The HPLC/MS results provided information on the peak purity (number of components) for minor HPLC peaks, as well as structural data such as the molecular ions and diagnostic fragment ions. The HPLC/MS results showed that there were five unknown drug related impurities, for which there were no standards available. Results for the assay of 15 raw materials by HPLC were within the range 98.5-101.5%.

Method for the analysis of the methylphosphonic acid metabolites of sarin and its ethanol-substituted analogue in urine as applied to the victims of the Tokyo sarin disaster

An analysis method for the methylphosphonic acid metabolites of sarin in urine using trimethylsilyl derivatization and flame photometric detection is described in this report. Authentic reference standards of isopropyl methylphosphonic acid (IMPA) and ethyl methylphosphonic acid (EMPA) as well as methylphosphonic acid were employed to estimate the concentration in human urine. A sample pretreatment procedure was developed for urine using a column of cation-loaded ion-exchange resins (Ag+ -, Ba2+ - or H+ -Dowex) and adjusting the pH of the eluate from the column to 3.75-3.85 improved recovery of the target compounds. The eluate was evaporated to dryness under vacuum prior to trimethylsilylation, to remove water and any hydroxy- or amino-carrying volatile substances. The sarin metabolites, because of their low volatility, were concentrated and could be derivatized for analysis. The use of synthesized authentic sarin and ethylsarin metabolites, i.e., IMPA and EMPA, made it possible to establish the necessary sample pretreatment procedures for derivatization and gas chromatography-flame photometric detection (GC-FPD) analysis. The detection limits were 0.025 ppm both for EMPA and [MPA, and 0.625 microM for MPA, respectively. This method can be useful for estimating the exposure level to sarin by assaying the metabolites in urine and it is applicable to a large numbers of samples.