Gergely Völgyi

Study of pH-dependent solubility of organic bases. Revisit of Henderson-Hasselbalch relationship

In this paper the pH-equilibrium solubility profiles of six organic drugs are presented. The equilibrium solubility values were determined using the saturation shake-flask and the Chasing Equilibrium Solubility (CheqSol) methods. Results obtained by the two methods are in good agreement. The aim of the present work was to study the validity of the Henderson-Hasselbalch (HH) relationship in the case of structurally diverse weak bases. The significance of pH control and the effect of the salt form (e.g., fumarate) was also investigated. In the case of monoprotic bases, namely papaverine, promethazine, propafenone and ticlopidine the experimental solubility data precisely follow the HH equation until the limit of salt solubility. The common ion effect on salt solubility was found to be significant at low pHs. Deviation from the HH equation in the case of dibasic quetiapine hydrogen fumarate and the ampholyte desvenlafaxine hydrogen fumarate can be easily interpreted with the formation of different salt compositions. It was concluded that precise pH control is essential in shake-flask solubility measurements. It is also critical that the pK(a) value and the intrinsic solubility are accurately determined when the HH relationship is used to predict the pH-dependent aqueous solubility of drugs.

Chiral separation of asenapine enantiomers by capillary electrophoresis and characterization of cyclodextrin complexes by NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and molecular modeling

The enantiomers of asenapine maleate (ASN), a novel antipsychotic against schizophrenia and mania with bipolar I disorder have been separated by cyclodextrin (CD) modified capillary zone electrophoresis for the first time. 15 different CDs were screened as complexing agents and chiral selectors, investigating the stability of the inclusion complexes and their enantiodiscriminating capacities. Although initially, none of the applied chiral selectors gave baseline separation, β-CD proved to be the most effective chiral selector. In order to improve resolution, an orthogonal experimental design was employed, altering the concentration of background electrolyte, organic modifier, pH, capillary temperature and applied voltage in a multivariate manner. The developed method (160 mM TRIS-acetate buffer pH 3.5, 7 mM β-CD, at 20 °C, applying 15 kV) was successful for baseline separation of ASN enantiomers (R(s)=2.40±0.04). Our method was validated according to ICH guidelines and proved to be sensitive, linear, accurate and precise for the chiral separation of ASN. Properties of the inclusion complexes, such as stoichiometry, atomic level intermolecular host-guest connections are proposed on the basis of ROESY NMR measurement, ESI-MS spectrometry and molecular modeling studies. It was found that the ASN-β-CD complex is of 1:1 composition, and either of the aromatic rings can be accommodated in the β-CD cavity.

Monte Carlo structure simulations for aqueous 1,4-dioxane solutions

Monte Carlo simulations in the NpT ensembles have been performed for the structure exploration of aqueous 1,4-dioxane solutions. Three different systems with all-atom dioxane:TIP4P water molar compositions of 2:500 (code:D2), 8:465 (D8), and 17:425 (D17) modeled solutions of 0.22, 0.88, and 1.86 mol/dm3 concentrations, respectively, at T = 298 K and p = 1 atm. The calculated solution densities increase from 0.992 to 1.002 g/cm3 with increasing dioxane concentration and approach the experimentally determined densities within 1%. This close agreement was achieved by utilizing RESP charges fitted to the in-solution IEF-PCM/B3LYP/6-31G* electrostatic potential of dioxane taken in its chair conformation and recently developed C, H steric parameters for ethers for calculations with a 12-6-1 all-atom potential. Solution structure analyses pointed out that the dioxane molecules arrange in the solutions with favorable distances of 4-8 angstroms for the ring symmetry centers. Within this range not only pairs of rings but triangular triads and tetrads have also been observed with center-center distances <8 angstroms. For the D8 system, about 25% of the sampled configurations included such a triad. In the case of the D17 model, two simulations starting from different solution configuration predicted different degrees for the dioxane aggregation in aqueous solution. In the more aggregated structure 3-21 triads are consistently maintained and 1-2 tetrads are formed in 58% of the configurations. Each dioxane oxygen forms about one hydrogen bond, on average, to a water molecule in the 0.22-1.86 molar range. The most likely O(dioxane)...H(water) hydrogen bond distance is 1.75-1.80 angstroms compared to the optimal distance of 1.72 angstroms in the isolated dimer. The optimal dioxane-water interaction energy of -5.65 kcal/mol indicates a remarkable hydrogen-bond acceptor character for dioxane.

Predicting the exposure and antibacterial activity of fluoroquinolones based on physicochemical properties.

The purposes of this study are to evaluate if the PAMPA (Parallel Artificial Membrane Permeability Assay) permeability and the true partition coefficient could be useful for predicting AUC and MIC data of a group of antibacterial fluoroquinolones (FQs). The protonation macro- and microconstants, the n-octanol/water partition coefficients at isoelectric pHs, and the PAMPA permeability of 11 selected FQs were determined, and used to calculate the true partition coefficient, the interactivity parameter between the acidic and basic group, and the apparent intrinsic permeability. It has been shown that the apparent intrinsic permeability correlates well with the AUC in human, whereas the true partition coefficient and the interactivity parameter correlate with 1/MIC values on two Gram-positive bacteria, namely Streptococcus pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus (methicillin-susceptible). The AUC/MIC ratios predicted from these correlations have shown to be in good agreement with the literature values. It is envisaged that the models described in this study could be useful in the development of new FQs by enabling an early prediction of AUC/MIC ratios based on physicochemical properties.

Tapentadol enantiomers: Synthesis, physico-chemical characterization and cyclodextrin interactions.

The complete physico-chemical characterization of the single enantiomer analgesic drug R,R-tapentadol was quantitated in terms of protonation macro- and microconstants and octanol-water partition coefficient using pH-potentiometry, UV-pH and (1)H NMR-pH titrations. The protonation macroconstants were found to be logK1=10.59±0.01 and logK2=9.44±0.01, while the individual basicity of each protonation site was found to be logk(O)=9.94 and logk(N)=10.48 for the phenolate and tertiary amine functions, respectively. As a consequence, the zwitterionic form of tapentadol predominates in aqueous solutions. The potential optical impurity (S,S-tapentadol) was synthesized for the first time in a seven-step chiral synthetic procedure. The enantiomers of tapentadol were separated by cyclodextrin modified capillary zone electrophoresis. Over 15 cyclodextrins were investigated in terms of apparent complex stability and screened as chiral selectors, and the sulfated alpha-cyclodextrin was found to resolve the enantiomers with excellent resolution (Rs=16.2 and 9.1) at pH 4.75 and pH 9.0, respectively. The system containing 12mM selector in a 50mM TRIS-acetate buffer was amenable to detect S,S-tapentadol potential optical impurity at 0.1% concentration level.

Biorelevant solubility of poorly soluble drugs: rivaroxaban, furosemide, papaverine and niflumic acid.

In this work the biorelevant solubility of four drugs representing different acid-base property, wide range of lipohilicity and low aqueous solubility was studied. The equilibrium solubility of rivaroxaban (non-ionizable), furosemide (acid), papaverine (base) and niflumic acid (ampholyte) was determined in simulated gastric fluid (SGF pH 1.2), in simulated intestinal fluid fasted state (FaSSIF pH 6.5) and fed state (FeSSIF pH 5.0) and their corresponding blank buffers at a temperature of 37 °C using saturation shake-flask method. The concentration was measured by optimized HPLC analysis. The solubilizing effect of bile acid/lipid micelles as additive components of biorelevent media (BRM) is expressed with the solubility ratio (SR: SBRM/Sblank buffer) and the food effect was estimated from SFeSSIF/SFaSSIF coefficient. It was revealed that ionization plays primarily role in solubility of compounds which undergo ionization in BRM. The solubilizing effect in FaSSIF was marginal for the neutral compound (rivaroxaban) and for molecules are anionic at pH 6.5 (furosemide and niflumic acid). The higher concentration of solubilizing agents in FeSSIF improved the solubility of papaverine carrying positive charge and niflumic acid being partially zwitterionic at pH 5.0.

RPTLC Determination of log P of Structurally Diverse Neutral Compounds

A validated reversed-phase thin-layer chromatographic (RPTLC) method is proposed for parallel estimation of the lipophilicity of chemically diverse neutral compounds or weak acids and bases. To cover a wide range of lipophilicity two optimized chromatographic systems were used - one for determination of log P of low or moderately lipophilic compounds (log P = 0-3) and one for highly lipophilic compounds (log P = 3 6). RP-diC1 silanized silica gel plates were used as stationary phase. Mixtures of water with acetone, acetonitrile, methanol, ethanol, l-propanol, 2-propanol, and 1,4-dioxane were investigated as mobile phases. Acetone-water mixtures were found to be optimum for both systems in respect of correlation of RM values with octanol-water partition coefficients. Two chemically diverse sets of calibration compounds were selected to cover ranges of moderate and high lipophilicity. Correlation between log P and chromatographic RM data (log P = aRM + b) was good for both systems; the correlation coefficients (r) of the calibration equations were >0.99. The universal applicability of the optimized chromatographic systems was then tested using 20 randomly selected structurally diverse compounds. There was usually good agreement between log P values obtained by the shake-flask method and by RPTLC. This validated RPTLC method can be regarded as a suitable alternative for rapid and acceptably accurate estimation of the lipophilicity of drug candidates in the early phase of drug research.

Physicochemical characterisation and cyclodextrin complexation of erlotinib

Abstract Erlotinib (ERL), the anticancer drug of poor bioavailability, was quantified in terms of bio-relevant physicochemical parameters, such as acid–base properties, lipophilicity and solubility, and a comprehensive study on its inclusion complexation was carried out. The protonation constant of ERL (log K = 5.32) indicates that it exists mainly in deprotonated form at the pH of blood plasma. The high lipophilicity (log p = 2.75) explains its good permeability, while the very low solubility (S0 = 12.46 μM) causes its low bioavailability and renders injection formulation a difficult job. This problem could be alleviated by enhancing ERL solubility through cyclodextrin (CD) inclusion complexation. Therefore, ERL–CD interactions were studied by a number of analytical techniques. The apparent stability constants of ERL with seven different CDs were determined using affinity capillary electrophoresis. Results indicated that the seven-membered β-CD and its derivatives were the most suitable hosts. Using UV Job plot titration 1:1 stoichiometry was determined, confirmed by electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry experiments. The geometry of the inclusion complex was investigated by 2D ROESY NMR techniques, revealing that the ethynylphenyl ring enters the β-CD cavity. Phase-solubility analysis shows greatly enhanced solution concentration by CD complexation. The determined equilibrium and structural information offer molecular basis to elaborate improved drug formulation with enhanced bioavailability.

Effect of solubility enhancement on nasal absorption of meloxicam

Besides the opioids the standard management of the World Health Organization suggests NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) alone or in combination to enhance analgesia in malignant and non-malignant pain therapy. The applicability of NSAIDs in a nasal formulation is a new approach in pharmaceutical technology. In order to enhance the nasal absorption of meloxicam (MX) as an NSAID, its salt form, meloxicam potassium monohydrate (MXP), registered by Egis Plc., was investigated in comparison with MX. The physico-chemical properties of the drugs (structural analysis, solubility and dissolution rate) and the mucoadhesivity of nasal formulations were controlled. In vitro and in vivo studies were carried out to determine the nasal applicability of MXP as a drug candidate in pain therapy. It can be concluded that MX and MXP demonstrated the same equilibrium solubility at the pH5.60 of the nasal mucosa (0.017mg/ml); nonetheless, MXP indicated faster dissolution and a higher permeability through the synthetic membrane. The animal studies justified the short Tmax value (15min) and the high AUC of MXP, which is important in acute pain therapy. It can be assumed that the low mucoadhesivity of MXP spray did not increase the residence time in the nasal cavity, and the elimination from the nasal mucosa was therefore faster than in the case of MX. Further experiments are necessary to prove the therapeutic relevance of this MXP-containing innovative intranasal formulation.

Physicochemical Characterization and Cyclodextrin Complexation of the Anticancer Drug Lapatinib

Lapatinib (LAP), the tyrosine kinase inhibitor drug with moderate bioavailability, was characterized in terms of physicochemical properties: acid-base characteristics, lipophilicity, and solubility. The highly lipophilic nature of the drug and its extremely low water solubility (  nM) limit the development of a parenteral formulation. In order to enhance solubility and bioavailability, inclusion complex formation with cyclodextrins (CDs) is a promising method of choice. Therefore, LAP-CD interactions were also studied by a multianalytical approach. The stability constants of LAP with native cyclodextrins, determined by UV spectroscopy, identified the seven-membered β-CD as the most suitable host. Continuous variation method (Job’s plot) by 1H NMR showed a 1 : 1 stoichiometry for the complexes. The geometry of the complex was elucidated by 2D ROESY NMR measurements and molecular modeling, indicating that the partial molecular encapsulation includes the fluorophenyl ring of LAP. Phase-solubility studies with four CDs, β-CD, (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD), randomly methylated-β- (RAMEB-) cyclodextrin, and sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBE-β-CD), show an type diagram and highly increased solubility via CD complexation. The results are especially promising with SBE-β-CD, exerting more than 600-fold gain in solubility. The equilibrium and structural information presented herein can offer the molecular basis for an improved drug formulation with enhanced bioavailability.