Enantiomeric impurities in chiral synthons, catalysts, and auxiliaries. Part 3

Fast, sensitive LC-MS resolution of α -hydroxy acid biomarkers via SPP-teicoplanin and an alternative UV detection approach

Enantioseparation of α -hydroxy acids is essential since specific enantiomers of these compounds can be used as disease biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, brain diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes, etc., as well as in the food industry to ensure quality. HPLC methods were developed for the enantioselective separation of 11 α -hydroxy acids using a superficially porous particle-based teicoplanin (TeicoShell) chiral stationary phase. The retention behaviors observed for the hydroxy acids were HILIC, reversed phase, and ion-exclusion. While both mass spectrometry and UV spectroscopy detection methods could be used, specific mobile phases containing ammonium formate and potassium dihydrogen phosphate, respectively, were necessary with each approach. The LC-MS mode was approximately two orders of magnitude more sensitive than UV detection. Mobile phase acidity and ionic strength significantly affected enantioresolution and enantioselectivity. Interestingly, higher ionic strength resulted in increased retention and enantioresolution. It was noticed that for formate-containing mobile phases, using acetonitrile as the organic modifier usually resulted in greater enantioresolution compared to methanol. However, sometimes using acetonitrile with high ammonium formate concentrations led to lengthy retention times which could be avoided by using methanol as the organic modifier. Additionally, the enantiomeric purities of single enantiomer standards were determined and it was shown that almost all standards contained some levels of enantiomeric impurities.

Recent advances in the field of chiral crystallization

Crystallization is one of the largest and most economical bulk purification techniques used in industry today. There has been an increase in demand for enantiomerically pure compound production for research, organic synthesis, pharmaceutical drug production, and other applications. Even after asymmetric synthesis, chiral purification will always be necessary. The focus of this review is on recent advances in chiral crystallization for the purification of enantiomers. A comprehensive discussion of three techniques and their mechanisms is provided, namely: attrition-enhanced deracemization, cocrystallization, and inorganic ionic cocrystallization. Several examples of attrition-enhanced deracemization are discussed. The key advantage of this technique is that it eliminates enantiomeric waste and can be used to produce enantiomeric excesses of greater than 99% from racemic mixtures. Chiral cocrystallization is examined, with over 60 cocrystallizing compounds, as an excellent means for enantiomeric enrichment. Selective chiral inclusion complexation was shown to be a novel approach for the formation of cocrystals. Chiral inorganic ionic cocrystallization is a new technique involving the formation of cocrystals between chiral ligands and certain metal salts in order to produce conglomerate crystal behavior in otherwise racemic compounds.

Antisense Oligonucleotide Therapy: From Design to the Huntington Disease Clinic

Huntington disease (HD) is a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by an inherited mutation in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, which encodes mutant HTT protein. Though HD remains incurable, various preclinical studies have reported a favorable response to HTT suppression, emphasizing HTT lowering strategies as prospective disease-modifying treatments. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) lower HTT by targeting transcripts and are well suited for treating neurodegenerative disorders as they distribute broadly throughout the central nervous system (CNS) and are freely taken up by neurons, glia, and ependymal cells. With the FDA approval of an ASO therapy for another disease of the CNS, spinal muscular atrophy, ASOs have become a particularly attractive therapeutic option for HD. However, two types of ASOs were recently assessed in human clinical trials for the treatment of HD, and both were halted early. In this review, we will explore the differences in chemistry, targeting, and specificity of these HTT ASOs as well as preliminary clinical findings and potential reasons for and implications of these halted trials.

Enantiomeric impurities in chiral catalysts, auxiliaries, and synthons used in enantioselective syntheses. Part 5

The enantiomeric excess of chiral starting materials is one of the important factors determining the enantiopurity of products in asymmetric synthesis. Fifty-one commercially available chiral reagents used as building blocks, catalysts, and auxiliaries in various enantioselective syntheses were assayed for their enantiomeric purity. The test results were classified within five impurities level (ie, <0.01%, 0.01%-0.1%, 0.1%-1%, 1%-10%, >10%). Previously from 1998 to 2013, several reports have been published on the enantiomeric composition of more than 300 chiral reagents. This series of papers is necessitated by the fact that new reagents are forthcoming and that the enantiomeric purity of the same reagent can vary from batch to batch and/or from supplier to supplier. This report presents chiral liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) methods to separate enantiomers of chiral compounds and evaluate their enantiomeric purities. The accurate and efficient LC analysis was done using newly introduced superficially porous particle (SPP 2.7 μm) based chiral stationary phases (TeicoShell, VancoShell, LarihcShell-P, and NicoShell).

Gram Scale Conversion of R-BINAM to R-NOBIN

A mild, operationally simple, and single-step transition-metal-free protocol for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure (R)-(+)-2'-amino-1,1'-binaphthalen-2-ol (R-NOBIN) from (R)-(+)-1,1'-binaphthyl-2,2'-diamine (R-BINAM) is reported. The one-pot conversion proceeds with good yield and shows no racemization. The hydroxyl on the R-NOBIN product was shown to have come from water in the reaction medium via an H2(18)O study. The correct value of the specific rotation of R-NOBIN was reported.

Enantiomeric separation of biaryl atropisomers using cyclofructan based chiral stationary phases

Normal phase chiral HPLC methods are presented for the enantiomeric separation of 30 biaryl atropisomers including 18 new compounds recently produced via a novel synthetic approach. Three new cyclofructan based chiral stationary phases were evaluated. Separations were achieved for all but six analytes and the LARIHC™ CF6-P alone provided 15 baseline separations. Effects of polar modifiers and temperature effects also were studied. Apparent thermodynamic parameters were determined by van't Hoff plots. Preparative scale methods were developed and employed resulting in the first ever isolation of these novel atropisomers in their pure enantiomeric form. Insights into the mechanism of retention and chiral discrimination are presented.

Pharmaceutical impurities and degradation products: uses and applications of NMR techniques

Current standards and regulations demand the pharmaceutical industry not only to produce highly pure drug substances, but to achieve a thorough understanding of the impurities accompanying their manufactured drug substances and products. These challenges have become important goals of process chemistry and have steadily stimulated the search of impurities after accelerated or forced degradation procedures. As a result, impurity profiling is one of the most attractive, active and relevant fields of modern pharmaceutical analysis. This activity includes the identification, structural elucidation and quantitative determination of impurities and degradation products in bulk drugs and their pharmaceutical formulations. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has evolved into an irreplaceable approach for pharmaceutical quality assessment, currently playing a critical role in unequivocal structure identification as well as structural confirmation (qualitative detection), enabling the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the formation of process and/or degradation impurities. NMR is able to provide qualitative information without the need of standards of the unknown compounds and multiple components can be quantified in a complex sample without previous separation. When coupled to separative techniques, the resulting hyphenated methodologies enhance the analytical power of this spectroscopy to previously unknown levels. As a result, and by enabling the implementation of rational decisions regarding the identity and level of impurities, NMR contributes to the goal of making better and safer medicines. Herein are discussed the applications of NMR spectroscopy and its hyphenated derivate techniques to the study of a wide range pharmaceutical impurities. Details on the advantages and disadvantages of the methodology and well as specific challenges with regards to the different analytical problems are also presented.