The separation of nonapeptides by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Combined effects of potassium chloride and ethanol as mobile phase modulators on hydrophobic interaction and reversed-phase chromatography of three insulin variants

The two main chromatographic modes based on hydrophobicity, hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and reversed-phase chromatography (RPC), are widely used for both analytical and preparative chromatography of proteins in the pharmaceutical industry. Despite the extensive application of these separation methods, and the vast amount of studies performed on HIC and RPC over the decades, the underlying phenomena remain elusive. As part of a systematic study of the influence of mobile phase modulators in hydrophobicity-based chromatography, we have investigated the effects of both KCl and ethanol on the retention of three insulin variants on two HIC adsorbents and two RPC adsorbents. The focus was on the linear adsorption range, separating the modulator effects from the capacity effects, but some complementary experiments at higher load were included to further investigate observed phenomena. The results show that the modulators have the same effect on the two RPC adsorbents in the linear range, indicating that the modulator concentration only affects the activity of the solute in the mobile phase, and not that of the solute-ligand complex, or that of the ligand. Unfortunately, the HIC adsorbents did not show the same behavior. However, the insulin variants displayed a strong tendency toward self-association on both HIC adsorbents; on one in particular. Since this causes peak fronting, the retention is affected, and this could probably explain the lack of congruity. This conclusion was supported by the results from the non-linear range experiments which were indicative of double-layer adsorption on the HIC adsorbents, while the RPC adsorbents gave the anticipated increased tailing at higher load.

Development and validation of a stability-indicating analytical method for the quantitation of oxytocin in pharmaceutical dosage forms

A single stability-indicating assay for oxytocin (OT) in pharmaceutical dosage forms using gradient elution over 21 min has been reported in the literature. Furthermore, published and compendial methods for the analysis of OT containing dosage forms also involve using HPLC with gradient elution and complicated mobile phases that include hydrophobic ion pairing agents. A simple isocratic and stability-indicating assay was developed and validated. The conditions are as follows, column: Phenomenex C18 Hypersil, 5 microm packing, 4.6 mm x 150 mm with acetonitrile-phosphate buffer (pH 5; 0.08 M) (20:80) as the mobile phase with UV detection at 220 nm The method was found to be specific for OT in the presence of degradation products and chlorbutol (preservative) with an overall analytical run time of 16 min. Accuracy was determined to be 0.77-1.18% bias for all samples tested. Intra-assay precision (repeatability) was found to be 0.22-1.04%R.S.D. while the inter-day precision (intermediate precision) was found to be 1.27-1.68%R.S.D. for the samples studied. The calibration curve was found to be linear with the equation y = 1.81x + 0.02 and a linear regression coefficient of 0.9991 over the range 0.4-12.0 IU/ml. The LOD and the LOQ were determined to be 0.1 and 0.4 IU/ml, respectively. Syntocinon, a commercially available dosage form of OT was assayed resulting in 100.5-106.6% recovery of the label claim and an average of 10.04 IU/ml.

The contributions of Csaba Horváth to liquid chromatography

This article is not a biographic description of the life of Csaba Horváth, but an attempt to describe his most important contributions to liquid chromatography, as viewed by an author who himself started with HPLC in 1973. With the introduction of columns packed with rigid pellicular particles, which could withstand high pressures, the combination of fast separations with high efficiency was designated high pressure liquid chromatography about 35 years ago. The contribution of Horváth to the birth of modern LC was to imagine the potential for high-speed separations in LC by transferring ideas and technology from gas chromatography. From this time, his strong participation in understanding and describing the processes of separation science made him a leading scientist in fundamental studies of separation principles until his passing away in April 2004. In addition to being one of the forefathers of modern liquid chromatography, Csaba Horváth described both the ionic interactions and the hydrophobic interactions on ion exchangers as well as on reversed phase materials and developed a theoretical basis for understanding these processes. If one person should be mentioned as the inventor of ion-pair chromatography of organic compounds, of hydrophobic interaction chromatography, and of the theoretical basis for reversed phase chromatography, this person is Csaba Horváth. Throughout the last 30 years he also had a strong interest in studying proteins in separation processes, and in the last decade he made valuable contributions to capillary electrochromatography, particularly for separation of proteins on monolithic columns. For this author is difficult to find another person who has had a greater impact on liquid chromatography than Csaba Horváth.

A comparative study of the chromatographic selectivity of polystyrene-coated zirconia and related reversed-phase materials

The chromatographic selectivities of polystyrene-coated zirconia (PS-ZrO2) have been investigated in detail by means of homologue series retention studies and studies of a variety of nonpolar aromatic positional isomers. This material has been compared to polybutadiene-coated zirconia, octadecyl- and phenyl-bonded silica, and polymer-based reversed phases. In addition, the separations of a wide variety of compound classes on PS-ZrO2 were compared with those on other aromatic and aliphatic RPLC phases. The PS-ZrO2 material exhibits substantial differences in selectivity toward nonpolar and polar analytes as compared to other phases, especially with respect to polybutadiene-coated zirconia (PBD-ZrO2). On PS-ZrO2, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are retained much more than are alkylbenzenes, whereas on PBD-ZrO2 the opposite is observed. In addition, PS-ZrO2 has much greater selectivity than does PBD-ZrO2 for the separation of structural isomers which differ in the position of phenyl groups. In general, even though the carbon content of PS-ZrO2 is much lower than that of conventional reversed-phase materials, such as octadecyl-bonded silica (C18-SiO2), polar analytes exhibit sufficient retention and differential selectivity on PS-ZrO2 that resolution comparable to that on C18-SiO2 can be obtained but with substantially improved analysis times.

In vitro release and permeation of oxytocin from a mucoadhesive buccal patch

A biocompatible, mucoadhesive patch was evaluated for potential use in the delivery of peptides. The model peptide oxytocin was incorporated into the polymeric patch matrix and the diffusion of oxytocin across excised rabbit buccal epithelium was studied following patch application. Penetration of oxytocin across excised mucosa from an applied patch did not exhibit a characteristic lag time for diffusion, with the steady-state flux of oxytocin being 0.062 +/- 0.019 microgram/cm2/hr. However, when finite-dose diffusion studies were conducted to quantitate transport of oxytocin across rabbit buccal mucosa, the mean apparent permeability coefficient (P), diffusion coefficient (D), partition coefficient (K), and lag time (tlag) were (1.94 +/- 0.74) x 10(-7) cm/sec, (9.20 +/- 1.65) x 10(-8) cm2/sec, 0.13 +/- 0.05 and 1.86 +/- 0.31 hr, respectively. The release of oxytocin from the mucoadhesive buccal patches in vitro proceeded very rapidly during the first 2 hr, with 72% of the amount initially incorporated into the patches released at 24 hr. The disappearance rate of intact, parent oxytocin when an oxytocin solution was placed in direct contact with the serosal and mucosal sides of freshly excised rabbit buccal mucosa was 0.74 +/- 0.34 microgram/cm2/hr and 3.38 +/- 1.07 micrograms/cm2/hr, respectively. Thus, the buccal patch evaluated in these studies appears to be suitable for transmucosal delivery of peptides.

Solid-phase extraction of arginine vasotocin and isotocin in fish samples and subsequent gradient reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic separation

Gradient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) preceded by a solid-phase extraction (SPE) step is described for determining arginine vasotocin and isotocin, the neurohypophysial nonapeptides, in fish plasma samples. The combination of these two methods significantly improves the separation and increases the sensitivity of the assay. The proposed assay may be a useful alternative for analysis of similar nonapeptides in plasma without the use of radioisotopes, while taking into consideration a difference in detection sensitivity.

Lysine vasopressin undergoes rapid glycation in the presence of reducing sugars

Lysine vasopressin (LVP) readily reacts with reducing saccharides both in lyophilized preparations and in aqueous solution. Incubation of LVP with, for example, lactose over a pH range of 3.0-8.5 in phosphate buffer or simply in water, gives rise to a number of reaction products, some of which form rapidly (in a matter of hours) even in the frozen state. Reaction mixtures were analysed by reversed-phase HPLC and the structures of the products were deduced from the amino-acid composition of isolated components, by comparison with product profiles obtained with analogues under similar conditions and by FAB mass-spectral analysis of derivatives isolated after reduction with cyanoborohydride. The primary products arise from the formation of Schiff's bases at one or both of the two amino functions. The alpha-amino group of the N-terminal cystine is considerably more reactive than is the epsilon-amino group of lysine and it is the N-terminal adduct which rapidly forms even at -20 degrees C. It is concluded that caution must be shown in using reducing sugars in formulations containing peptides and proteins, particularly the vasopressins and oxytocin.

Preparative isolation of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor 1 by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

The isolation of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor 1 (rhIGF-1) is complicated by the presence of several rhIGF-1 variants which co-purify using conventional chromatographic media. These species consist primarily of a methionine-sulfoxide variant of the properly folded molecule and a misfolded form and its respective methionine-sulfoxide variant. An analytical reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography procedure using a 5-micron C18 column, an acetonitrile-trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) isocratic elution, and elevated temperature gives baseline resolution of the four species. Using this analytical method as a development tool, a process-scale chromatography step was established. The 5-micron analytical packing material was replaced with a larger-size particle to reduce back-pressure and cost. Since the TFA counter-ion binds tightly to proteins and is difficult to subsequently dissociate, a combination of acetic acid and NaCl was substituted. Isocratic separations are not good process options due to problems with reproducibility and control. A shallow gradient elution using premixed mobile phase buffers at the same linear velocity was found to give an equivalent separation at low load levels and minimized solvent degassing. However, at higher loading there was a loss of resolution. A matrix of various buffers was evaluated for their effects on separation. Elevated pH resulted in a significant shift in both the elution order and relative retention times of the principal rh-IGF-1 variants, resulting in a substantial increase in effective capacity. An increase in the ionic strength further improved resolution. Several different media were evaluated with regard to particle size, shape and pore diameter using the improved mobile phase. The new conditions were scaled up 1305-fold and resulted in superimposable chromatograms, 96% recovery and > 99% purity. Thus, by optimizing the pH, ionic strength and temperature, a high-capacity preparative separation of rhIGF-1 from its related fermentation variants was obtained.

Chemistry of zirconia and its use in chromatography

The purpose of this review is to shed some light on the complex properties of zirconia's surface chemistry in order to better understand its behaviour under chromatographic conditions. We emphasize the great differences between the much better known chemistry of a silica surface and the chemistry of zirconia's surface. The review describes both the physical and chemical properties of zirconium dioxide from a chromatographic point of view. The chemistry of monoclinic zirconia surface is developed from its underlying crystalline structure. The paper describes the dependence of the specific surface area, pore volume, porosity and mechanical strength on thermal treatment. Methods of synthesis of chromatographically useful zirconia are outlined. The review also covers the adsorption properties of zirconia at both gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces. Adsorption of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia are described and the controversies concerning the surface concentration of adsorption sites are presented. The complex chemistry of a zirconia surface is pointed out and the importance of ligand exchange reactions is emphasized. In contrast to a silica surface, ligand exchange plays an important role in liquid chromatographic applications of zirconia. Strong, hard Lewis acid sites, present on a zirconia surface, can interact with hard Lewis bases and these interactions, sometimes troublesome, can be successfully exploited even for protein separations. Zirconia's surface can be modified in many ways: dynamically, by addition of competing Lewis bases to the mobile phase, or permanently, by covering its surface with polymers or by depositing carbon. The review also shows that the main difficulty in achieving a wider variety of applications is probably our lack of knowledge and poor understanding of zirconia's surface chemistry.

Comparison of selectivities of reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, capillary zone electrophoresis and micellar capillary electrophoresis in the separation of neurohypophyseal peptides and analogues

A number of RP-HPLC systems, including those prescribed in several official monographs, have been evaluated for separating oxytocin, the vasopressins, some clinically important analogues and two additional neurohypophyseal nonapeptides. The separation has been compared with capillary zone electrophoresis and micellar electrophoresis in four micellar systems: cationic, anionic, zwitterionic and neutral. Complete separation was achieved by both RP-HPLC and micellar CE but the importance of charge as a major parameter of separation in CE confers a distinct and useful selectivity to micellar CE based separations.

Animal test or chromatography? Validated high-performance liquid chromatographic assay as an alternative to the biological assay for ornipressin

Ornipressin is a peptide drug which is usually assayed by a test on live rats. In order to reduce the animal experiments an alternative method was developed which uses gradient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on reversed-phase. The HPLC method was validated and shown to be selective and precise. Correlation studies were performed on samples of different dosage strengths and on thermally degraded samples, showing good correlation with the results obtained by the biological assay. The HPLC method was applied on various batches of ornipressin in bulk and in pharmaceutical preparations. HPLC is a rapid and inexpensive method which can replace the animal assay. A new quality control concept is proposed which uses HPLC for the analysis of ornipressin in bulk and in pharmaceutical preparations. With this concept animal testing can be reduced by 90%.

Isocratic high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode-array detection method for determination of lysine- and arginine-vasopressins and oxytocin in biological samples

A simple, isocratic, sensitive (1 ng), and specific high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method based on photodiode-array detection (PAD) is described for simultaneous quantitation of the bioactive peptides, lysine vasopressin (LVP), arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXY). Acidified pig plasma and left ventricular (LV) tissue samples were first extracted with Sep-Pak C18 columns, and the bioactive peptides were eluted with methanol, then dried at 37 degrees C and reconstituted with HPLC mobile phase. The bioactive peptides were separated by HPLC on a Dynamax 3009-A C8 column with a mobile phase of 0.1% trichloroacetic acid-50 mM heptanesulfonic acid-30mM triethylamine-20% acetonitrile in water, pH 2.5 and identified with a Waters 990-PAD system (spectrum index plots in the range 200-400 nm). Standards of LVP, AVP and OXY and their mixtures showed a linear increase in the range 5 to 100 ng and were eluted at 6.1, 6.9 and 4.6 min, respectively. Spectrum analysis showed a distinct absorption peak at 280 nm, corresponding to peptide bonds. The reproducibility of the method coefficient of variation for standards is 6.9, 5.8 and 4.7% for LVP, AVP and OXY, respectively. In plasma and tissue it is much higher: 12.9% (LV tissue) and 18.6% (plasma) for LVP. Pig plasma contains negligible amounts of AVP and OXY; LVP is much higher (0.28 +/- 0.19 ng/ml). In pig tissue, LVP predominates (6.95 ng/g wet weight) compared to AVP (1.45) and OXY (1.50). Spectral analysis is necessary to identify the bioactive peptide peaks among interfering substances and to increase the sensitivity four-fold. The method described here is useful for the simultaneous determination of LVP, AVP and OXY in the nanogram range and can be extended to picogram levels by employing PAD spectral analysis techniques.

The use of high-performance liquid chromatography in the quality control of oxytocin, vasopressin and synthetic analogues

Optimized C18 reversed-phase systems for oxytocin, desamino-oxytocin, lysine-vasopressin, ornithine-vasopressin and felypressin with gradient elution are discussed, focussing on precision, selectivity and ruggedness of the methods. Data from collaborative studies are presented, demonstrating the equivalence of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assays to bioassays. The findings suggest that HPLC is an excellent alternative to the time-consuming and less reliable animal testing.

Preparative high-performance liquid chromatography of peptides on a new reversed-phase packing material, Kromasil C18

Preparative reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography has found wide use in the production of peptides for pharmaceutical formulations. Purity of the substance and overall economy of the chromatographic system are the most important criterias. In this sense optimized, silica particles and production process with capability to separately control parameters important to chromatography, are essential to high-performance chromatography. Kromasil C18 packing material was tested and evaluated in respect of its selectivity, flow and pressure properties, resolution, load capacity, recovery, adsorption effects, mechanical strength and chemical degradation.

Determination of trace levels of oxytocin in pharmaceutical solutions by high-performance liquid chromatography

A high-performance liquid chromatographic assay has been developed for quantitating oxytocin in common large volume parenteral intravenous solution matrices. Separation is accomplished by a reversed-phase mechanism using a C18 column. The analyte is detected fluorimetrically after post-column derivatization with fluorescamine. Reaction efficiency is controlled by the use of a reaction buffer which is added separately from the fluorescamine via a dual pump reactor system. Given the low analyte concentration [40 parts per billion (10(9)) or less], the samples are concentrated on-line through the use of a trapping column and switching valve. To improve productivity, pre-concentration and analysis of adjacent samples is timed to occur concurrently. Performance of the assay is characterized by a high degree of accuracy, precision and ruggedness; the system is capable of distinguishing between the analyte, matrix components, impurities and common degradates.

Coordinative interactions in the separation of insulin and its derivatives by high-performance liquid chromatography

The effects of various inorganic cations and anions on the chromatographic behaviour of insulin and its derivatives have been investigated. It was shown that on an octadecylsilica column at a given eluent composition the retention of insulins depends primarily on the nature of the anions. The cations have a secondary effect, depending on their size and coordination ability. The mechanism of the effect of the ions is complex. It includes the formation of ion pairs, their influence on dissociation processes, a silanophilic effect, coordination processes and changes in the structures of the insulins.

Reverse-phase separation and electrochemical detection of neuropeptides

The reverse-phase separation of neuropeptides using isocratic conditions is described. Each component of the mobile phase was examined for its ability to influence the separation of complex mixtures of neuropeptides. Manipulation of buffer strength, pH, organic modifier and column type provided sufficient flexibility to resolve closely related neuropeptides. Amperometric detection of oxidizable amino acids in the peptide sequence of a number of endogenous neuropeptides proved suitable for the identification of peptide standards and quantification of neural lobe arginine vasopressin and striatal methionine enkephalin.

Separation of neuropeptides by HPLC: evaluation of different supports, with analytical and preparative applications to human and porcine neurophysins, beta-lipotropin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and beta-endorphin

The separation of 38 hypophyseal or hypothalamic peptides and proteins by reversed-phase HPLC is described. The efficacy of several supports is discussed: large-pore reversed-phase silica supports turned out to be most effective in the separation of neuropeptides and proteins. The use of high sodium phosphate and phosphoric acid in the eluent resulted in high yields and better separation. On the basis of this procedure, beta-lipotropin, beta-endorphin, and adrenocorticotropic hormone were prepared from porcine pituitary glands, and human neurophysins from human pituitary posterior lobes. Moreover, this system is used for the analysis of the perifusate of pituitary posterior lobes, showing the release of micro-heterogeneous neurophysins.

Vasopressin-like peptides in the rat brain: immunologic and chromatographic behavior and their response to water deprivation

The immunologic and chromatographic behavior of vasopressin-like immunoreactivity (VP-LI) extracted from rat brain tissue has been studied. VP-LI present in acid extracts of hypothalamic, hippocampal, and septal tissue was found to be immunologically identical to synthetic AVP. When extracts of hypothalamic tissue were fractionated using high-performance liquid chromatography, Arg8-vasopressin (AVP) was shown to be the predominant immunoreactive species. In contrast, in addition to AVP, extrahypothalamic brain tissue extracts also contained a small second vasopressin-immunoreactive peak. The effect of water deprivation on brain vasopressin content and chromatographic profile was also studied. This treatment depleted VP-LI content in the posterior pituitary but did not greatly alter that of hypothalamic or extrahypothalamic brain. Microdissection studies showed that VP-LI content was reduced, but only in a restricted number of extrahypothalamic brain nuclei, and that water deprivation failed to alter or increased content in other areas. The results suggest that VP-ergic neurons in the rat brain may be differentially activated.

Comparison of reversed-phase and weak anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatographic methods for peptide separations

Weak anion-exchange and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic methods for peptide separations were compared using a tryptic digest of "rat small myelin basic protein". In these experiments, a number of tryptic peptides that were not resolved on the reversed-phase column could be separated on the weak anion-exchange column, and in other instances, as might be expected, reversed-phase chromatography provided better resolution of certain peptides than did the weak anion-exchange method. The results obtained strongly suggest that the combined use of these two methods of separation, which utilize different selectivities, can provide an excellent improvement in resolving power for a number of peptide separations.

Amperometric detection of amino acids in high-performance liquid chromatography with a copper electrode

A copper electrode has been used as an amperometric detector for amino acids in high-performance liquid chromatography. The amino acids are separated in a reversed-phase system, using silica-based and polymer-type column materials. Neutral or alkaline buffer solutions of phosphate and carbonate can be used as mobile phases. Borate buffers are less suitable. The detection method is characterized by a high linear dynamic range, good reproducibility, the absence of electrode poisoning and a sensitivity comparable to that of UV absorption methods after derivatization of the amino acids. Detection limits with conventional-scale columns are in the range 10-100 pmoles. A reduction in the flow-rate in the flow-through cell improves the sensitivity for amino acids that give relatively low signals, such as proline. Therefore, the use of microbore columns is especially advantageous for these compounds. The absolute detection limits decrease by about one order of magnitude on changing to a miniaturized system.