Juan M. Padró

Development of an ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction method for the determination of nifurtimox and benznidazole in human plasma

Dispersive ionic liquid-liquid microextraction combined with liquid chromatography and UV detection was used for the determination of two antichagasic drugs in human plasma: nifurtimox and benznidazole. The effects of experimental parameters on extraction efficiency-the type and volume of ionic liquid and disperser solvent, pH, nature and concentration of salt, and the time for centrifugation and extraction-were investigated and optimized. Matrix effects were detected and thus the standard addition method was used for quantification. This microextraction procedure yielded significant improvements over those previously reported in the literature and has several advantages, including high inter-day reproducibility (relative standard deviation=1.02% and 3.66% for nifurtimox and benznidazole, respectively), extremely low detection limits (15.7 ng mL(-1) and 26.5 ng mL(-1) for nifurtimox and benznidazole, respectively), and minimal amounts of sample and extraction solvent required. Recoveries were high (98.0% and 79.8% for nifurtimox and benznidazole, respectively). The proposed methodology offers the advantage of highly satisfactory performance in addition to being inexpensive, simple, and fast in the extraction and preconcentration of these antichagasic drugs from human-plasma samples, with these characteristics being consistent with the practicability requirements in current clinical research or within the context of therapeutic monitoring.

Analysis of non-polar heterocyclic aromatic amines in beefburguers by using microwave-assisted extraction and dispersive liquid–ionic liquid microextraction

A new sample preparation procedure to determine six heterocyclic aromatic amines (3-Amino-1,4-dimethyl-5H-pirido[4,3-b]indole, 3-Amino-1-methyl-5H-pirido[4,3-b]indole, 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo-[4,5-b]pyridine, 2-amino-9H-pyrido-[2,3-b] indole, 2-amino-3-methyl-9H-pyrido-[2,3-b] indole and 2-Amino-1,6-dimethylimidazo [4,5-b]-pyridine) in cooked beefburguers by using a combination of microwave-assisted solvent extraction and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction with an ionic liquid generated in situ was used. The optimized microwave extraction procedure consisted of a clean-up step with n-heptane and a subsequent dissolution step in basic media to desorb the analytes from the matrix. Next, an aqueous solution of the ionic liquid 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluorborate and sodium hexafluorphosphate was added and a water-insoluble 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorphosphate was formed within the matrix sample. The amines were analyzed by liquid chromatography with fluorescence and diode-array detection by using a typical C18 column. Peak identities were confirmed by absorbance spectral matching. Repeatability (RSD%) between 5.4% and 10.9%, enrichment factors between 19 and 30, limits of detection between 0.35 and 2.4 ng mL(-1) and recoveries between 69% and 100% were achieved. The extraction methodology is simple, rapid (about 40 min/sample) cheap and green since small amounts of non-toxic solvents are necessary.

Effect of temperature and solvent composition on acid dissociation equilibria, I: Sequenced pssKa determination of compounds commonly used as buffers in high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy detection

A new automated and rapid potentiometric method for determining the effect of organic-solvent composition on pK(a) has been developed. It is based on the measurements of pH values of buffer solutions of variable solvent compositions using a combined glass electrode. Additions of small volumes of one precisely thermostated solution into another, both containing exactly the same analytical concentrations of the buffer components, can produce continuous changes in the solvent composition. Two sequences of potential measurements, one of increasing and the other of decreasing solvent content, are sufficient to obtain the pK(a) values of the acidic compound within the complete solvent-composition range in about 2h. The experimental design, procedures, and calculations needed to convert the measured pH into the thermodynamic pK(a) values are thoroughly discussed. This rapid and automated method allows the systematic study of the effect of solvent compositions and temperatures on the pK(a). It has been applied to study the dissociation constants of two monoprotic acids: formic acid and triethylamine:HCl in acetonitrile/water mixtures within the range from 0 to 90% (v/v) at temperatures between 20°C and 60°C. These volatile compounds are frequently used to control the pH of the mobile phase in HPLC, especially in methods coupled to mass-spectrometry detection. The obtained pK(a) values are in excellent agreement with those previously reported. The results were fitted to empirical functions between pK(a) and temperature and composition. These equations, which can be used to estimate the pK(a) of these substances at any composition and temperature, would be highly useful in practical work during chromatographic method development.

A simple and efficient HPLC method for benznidazole dosage in human breast milk.

Background: Due to migration, Chagas disease is a significant public health problem in Latin America, and in other nonendemic regions. The 2 drugs currently available for the treatment, nifurtimox and benznidazole (BNZ), are associated with a high risk of toxicity in therapeutic doses. Excretion of drug into human breast milk is a potential source of unwanted exposure and pharmacologic effects in the nursing infant. However, this phenomenon was not evaluated until now, and measurement techniques for both drugs in milk were not developed. Methods: In this work, we described the development of a simple and fast method to quantify BNZ in human milk using a pretreatment that involves acid protein precipitation followed by tandem microfiltration, and reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography/ultraviolet analysis. It is simple because it takes only 3 steps to obtain a clean extracted solution that is ready to inject into the high-performance liquid chromatography equipment. It is fast because a complete analysis of a sample takes only 36 minutes. Results: Although the human breast milk composition is very variable, and lipids are one of the most difficult compounds to clean up on a milk sample, the procedure has proven to be robust and sensitive with a limit of detection of 0.3 &mgr;g/mL and quantization of 0.9 &mgr;g/mL. Despite a 70% recovery value, which could be considered a relatively low result, this recovery is reproducible (coefficient of variation <10%) and the analytical response under the linear range is very good (r2 = 0.9969 adjusted). Real samples of human breast milk from patients in treatment with BNZ were dosed to support the validation process of the method. Conclusions: The method described is fast, specific, accurate, precise, and sufficiently sensitive in the clinical context for the quantification of BNZ in human milk. For all these reasons, it is suitable for clinical risk evaluation studies.

Scope of partial least-squares regression applied to the enantiomeric composition determination of ketoprofen from strongly overlapped chromatographic profiles

Valuable quantitative information could be obtained from strongly overlapped chromatographic profiles of two enantiomers by using proper chemometric methods. Complete separation profiles where the peaks are fully resolved are difficult to achieve in chiral separation methods, and this becomes a particularly severe problem in case that the analyst needs to measure the chiral purity, i.e., when one of the enantiomers is present in the sample in very low concentrations. In this report, we explore the scope of a multivariate chemometric technique based on unfolded partial least-squares regression, as a mathematical tool to solve this quite frequent difficulty. This technique was applied to obtain quantitative results from partially overlapped chromatographic profiles of R- and S-ketoprofen, with different values of enantioresolution factors (from 0.81 down to less than 0.2 resolution units), and also at several different S:R enantiomeric ratios. Enantiomeric purity below 1% was determined with excellent precision even from almost completely overlapped signals. All these assays were tested on the most demanding condition, i.e., when the minor peak elutes immediately after the main peak. The results were validated using univariate calibration of completely resolved profiles and the method applied to the determination of enantiomeric purity of commercial pharmaceuticals.

Partition coefficients of organic compounds between water and imidazolium-, pyridinium-, and phosphonium-based ionic liquids

The partition coefficients, PIL/w, of several compounds, some of them of biological and pharmacological interest, between water and room-temperature ionic liquids based on the imidazolium, pyridinium, and phosphonium cations, namely 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, N-octylpyridinium tetrafluorophosphate, trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride, trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bromide, trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, and trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium dicyanamide, were accurately measured. In this way, we extended our database of partition coefficients in room-temperature ionic liquids previously reported. We employed the solvation parameter model with different probe molecules (the training set) to elucidate the chemical interactions involved in the partition process and discussed the most relevant differences among the three types of ionic liquids. The multiparametric equations obtained with the aforementioned model were used to predict the partition coefficients for compounds (the test set) not present in the training set, most being of biological and pharmacological interest. An excellent agreement between calculated and experimental log PIL/w values was obtained. Thus, the obtained equations can be used to predict, a priori, the extraction efficiency for any compound using these ionic liquids as extraction solvents in liquid-liquid extractions.

Enantiomeric analysis of overlapped chromatographic profiles in the presence of interferences. Determination of ibuprofen in a pharmaceutical formulation containing homatropine.

In this work, we studied the combination of chemometric methods with chromatographic separations as a strategy applied to the analysis of enantiomers when complete enantioseparation is difficult or requires long analysis times and, in addition, the target signals have interference from the matrix. We present the determination of ibuprofen enantiomers in pharmaceutical formulations containing homatropine as interference by chiral HPLC-DAD detection in combination with partial least-squares algorithms. The method has been applied to samples containing enantiomeric ratios from 95:5 to 99.5:0.5 and coelution of interferents. The results were validated using univariate calibration and without homatropine. Relative error of the method was less than 4.0%, for both enantiomers. Limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for (S)-(+)-ibuprofen were 4.96×10-10 and 1.50×10-9mol, respectively. LOD and LOQ for the R-(-)-ibuprofen were LOD=1.60×10-11mol and LOQ=4.85×10-11mol, respectively. Finally, the chemometric method was applied to the determination of enantiomeric purity of commercial pharmaceuticals. The ultimate goal of this research was the development of rapid, reliable, and robust methods for assessing enantiomeric purity by conventional diode array detector assisted by chemometric tools.

Automatized pssKa measurements of dihydrogen phosphate and Tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane in acetonitrile/water mixtures from 20 to 60 °C

We measured pKa values of Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane and dihydrogen phosphate; both are commonly used to prepare buffers for reverse-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), in acetonitrile/water mixtures from 0% to 70% (v/v) (64.6% (w/w)) acetonitrile and at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60°C. The procedure is based on potentiometric measurements of pH of buffer solutions of variable solvent compositions using a glass electrode and a novel automated system. The method consists in the controlled additions of small volumes of a thermostated solution from an automatic buret into another isothermal solution containing exactly the same buffer-component concentrations, but a different solvent composition. The continuous changes in the solvent composition induce changes in the potentials. Thus, only two sequences of additions are needed: increasing the amount of acetonitrile from pure water and decreasing the content of acetonitrile from 70% (v/v) (64.6% (w/w)). In the procedure with homemade apparatus, times for additions, stirring, homogenization, and data acquisition are entirely controlled by software programmed for this specific routine. This rapid, fully automated method was applied to acquire more than 40 potential data covering the whole composition range (at each temperature) in about two hours and allowed a systematic study of the effect of temperature and acetonitrile composition on acid-base equilibria of two widely used substances to control pH close to 7. The experimental pKa results were fitted to empirical functions between pKa and temperature and acetonitrile composition. These equations allowed predictions of pKa to estimate the pH of mixtures at any composition and temperature, which would be very useful, for instance, during chromatographic method development.