Shereen Mowaka

Chlorambucil-Adducts in DNA Analyzed at the Oligonucleotide Level Using HPLC-ESI MS

Chlorambucil (N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)-p-aminophenylbutyric acid) is a bifunctional alkylating drug belonging to the nitrogen mustard group and is widely used as an anticancer agent. As the antitumor activity of the nitrogen mustards is based on the formation of adducts with genomic DNA, calf thymus DNA-Chlorambucil adducts were the major target in this study. Calf thymus DNA was incubated with Chlorambucil to induce the formation of a wide variety of adducts. Subsequently, enzymatic digestion of the DNA was performed using Benzonase and Nuclease S1 aiming at the production of oligonucleotides. Separation and structure elucidation of the individual DNA-Chlorambucil adducts was achieved using HPLC interfaced to electrospray ionization ion trap mass spectrometry. Both trinucleotide and tetranucleotide Chlorambucil adducts were detected. The majority of the detected trinucleotide adducts involved monofunctional alkylation with guanine being the hotspot for alkylation. Only a few bifunctional trinucleotide adducts both intra- and interstrand cross-links were found. On the contrary, cross-linked adducts were the major detected tetranucleotides in which the intrastrand cross-links predominated over the interstrand cross-links. To a lesser extent, monofunctional guanine alkylated tetranucleotides were detected as well. With MS(n) experiments, the detailed structures of Chlorambucil adducts of the tri- and tetranucleotides were determined.

Novel spectrophotometric methods for simultaneous determination of Amlodipine, Valsartan and Hydrochlorothiazide in their ternary mixture

This work represents a comparative study of two smart spectrophotometric techniques namely; successive resolution and progressive resolution for the simultaneous determination of ternary mixtures of Amlodipine (AML), Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) and Valsartan (VAL) without prior separation steps. These techniques consist of several consecutive steps utilizing zero and/or ratio and/or derivative spectra. By applying successive spectrum subtraction coupled with constant multiplication method, the proposed drugs were obtained in their zero order absorption spectra and determined at their maxima 237.6 nm, 270.5 nm and 250 nm for AML, HCT and VAL, respectively; while by applying successive derivative subtraction they were obtained in their first derivative spectra and determined at P230.8-246, P261.4-278.2, P233.7-246.8 for AML, HCT and VAL respectively. While in the progressive resolution, the concentrations of the components were determined progressively from the same zero order absorption spectrum using absorbance subtraction coupled with absorptivity factor methods or from the same ratio spectrum using only one divisor via amplitude modulation method can be used for the determination of ternary mixtures using only one divisor where the concentrations of the components are determined progressively. The proposed methods were checked using laboratory-prepared mixtures and were successfully applied for the analysis of pharmaceutical formulation containing the cited drugs. Moreover comparative study between spectrum addition technique as a novel enrichment technique and a well established one namely spiking technique was adopted for the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations containing low concentration of AML. The methods were validated as per ICH guidelines where accuracy, precision and specificity were found to be within their acceptable limits. The results obtained from the proposed methods were statistically compared with the reported one where no significant difference was observed.

Validated spectrophotometric methods for simultaneous determination of Omeprazole, Tinidazole and Doxycycline in their ternary mixture

A comparative study of smart spectrophotometric techniques for the simultaneous determination of Omeprazole (OMP), Tinidazole (TIN) and Doxycycline (DOX) without prior separation steps is developed. These techniques consist of several consecutive steps utilizing zero/or ratio/or derivative spectra. The proposed techniques adopt nine simple different methods, namely direct spectrophotometry, dual wavelength, first derivative-zero crossing, amplitude factor, spectrum subtraction, ratio subtraction, derivative ratio-zero crossing, constant center, and successive derivative ratio method. The calibration graphs are linear over the concentration range of 1-20 μg/mL, 5-40 μg/mL and 2-30 μg/mL for OMP, TIN and DOX, respectively. These methods are tested by analyzing synthetic mixtures of the above drugs and successfully applied to commercial pharmaceutical preparation. The methods that are validated according to the ICH guidelines, accuracy, precision, and repeatability, were found to be within the acceptable limits.

A comparative study of smart spectrophotometric methods for simultaneous determination of sitagliptin phosphate and metformin hydrochloride in their binary mixture.

Simple, specific, accurate and precise spectrophotometric methods were developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of the oral antidiabetic drugs; sitagliptin phosphate (STG) and metformin hydrochloride (MET) in combined pharmaceutical formulations. Three methods were manipulating ratio spectra namely; ratio difference (RD), ratio subtraction (RS) and a novel approach of induced amplitude modulation (IAM) methods. The first two methods were used for determination of STG, while MET was directly determined by measuring its absorbance at λmax 232 nm. However, (IAM) was used for the simultaneous determination of both drugs. Moreover, another three methods were developed based on derivative spectroscopy followed by mathematical manipulation steps namely; amplitude factor (P-factor), amplitude subtraction (AS) and modified amplitude subtraction (MAS). In addition, in this work the novel sample enrichment technique named spectrum addition was adopted. The proposed spectrophotometric methods did not require any preliminary separation step. The accuracy, precision and linearity ranges of the proposed methods were determined. The selectivity of the developed methods was investigated by analyzing laboratory prepared mixtures of the drugs and their combined pharmaceutical formulations. Standard deviation values were less than 1.5 in the assay of raw materials and tablets. The obtained results were statistically compared to that of a reported spectrophotometric method. The statistical comparison showed that there was no significant difference between the proposed methods and the reported one regarding both accuracy and precision.

Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Empagliflozin in Healthy Egyptian Volunteers Using LC-MS/MS and Comparison with Other Ethnic Populations

The present study considered the pharmacokinetic evaluation of empagliflozin after administration to Egyptian volunteers, and the results were compared with other ethnic populations. The FDA recognizes that standard methods of defining racial subgroups are necessary to compare results across pharmacokinetic studies and to assess potential subgroup differences. The design of the study was as an open labeled, randomized, one treatment, one period, single dose pharmacokinetic study. The main pharmacokinetic parameters estimated were Cmax, Tmax, t1/2, elimination rate constant, AUC0-t and AUC0-inf. The insignificant difference in pharmacokinetic parameters between Egyptians and white German subjects suggests that no dose adjustment should be considered with administration of 25u2009mg empagliflozin to Egyptian population. A new LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated, allowing sensitive estimation of empagliflozin (25–600u2009ng mL−1) in human plasma using dapagliflozin as an internal standard (IS). The method was applied successfully on the underlying pharmacokinetic study with enhanced sample preparation that involved liquid-liquid extraction. Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) of the transition pairs of m/z 449.01 to 371.21 for empagliflozin and m/z 407.00 to 328.81 for dapagliflozin (IS) was employed utilizing negative mode Electro Spray Ionization (ESI). The validated LC-MS/MS method is suitable for further toxicodynamic and bioequivalence studies.

Novel contribution to the simultaneous analysis of certain hypoglycemic drugs in the presence of their impurities and degradation products utilizing UPLC-MS/MS

A novel ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was established for simultaneous determination of three hypoglycemic drugs namely; sitagliptin (STG), vildagliptin (VLG) and metformin (MET) in the presence of their degradation products and STG related impurities. Chromatographic separation was accomplished on a Hypersil gold 50 mm × 2.1 mm (1.9 μm) column, using acetonitrile and 0.2% formic acid aqueous solution as the mobile phase with a gradient elution. Electrospray ionization (ESI) source was operated in the positive ion mode. The selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was used to quantify the drugs utilizing the transitions of 408.12 → 235.24 (m/z), 304.33 → 154.32 (m/z), 130.12 → 71.32 (m/z) and 255.75 → 166.15 (m/z), for STG, VLG, MET and diphenhydramine (IS), respectively. The method has displayed a lower limit of detection of 1.50 ng mL−1, 1.50 ng mL−1 and 3.00 ng mL−1 for STG, VLG and MET, respectively. The drugs were subjected to forced degradation where it was concluded that STG, VLG and MET were highly susceptible for alkaline stress conditions. In addition, the study of the degradation kinetics of the drugs has proved that the degradation follows a pseudo-first-order reaction. The proposed method was effectively applied for the analysis of laboratory prepared mixtures as well as combined pharmaceutical formulations. No significant difference was found regarding accuracy and precision upon statistical comparison of the obtained results with those of the reported method. Validation was conducted in compliance with the ICH guidelines proving the method to be selective, linear, precise and accurate. The simplicity and sensitivity of this method allows its use in the quality control of the cited drugs.

Suitability of various chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques for analysis and kinetic degradation study of trelagliptin

Multifaceted comparative analytical methods for trelagliptin (TRL) were investigated, applied to ZAFATEK tablets and HPLC-UV was selected for a degradation kinetic study. UPLC-MS/MS (Method I), UPLC-UV (Method II), HPLC-UV (Method III), UHPLC-UV (Method IV) and direct UV (Method V) methods were developed. Methods (I-V) showed satisfactory results using TRL concentration ranges of 50–800 ng/mL, 2.5–80u2009μg/mL, 5–100u2009μg/mL, 5–100u2009μg/mL and 5–50u2009μg/mL, respectively. Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) of the transition pairs of m/z 358.176 to 134.127 for TRL and m/z 340.18 to 116.08 for alogliptin (IS) were employed utilizing positive mode Electrospray Ionization (ESI). The degradation kinetic study (Method VI) was carried out using 1u2009N HCl based on three different temperatures (70u2009°C, 80u2009°C and 90u2009°C). Through the optimized method-3, a good chromatographic separation of TRL from its major degradation product was achieved. Arrhenius plot was used in the kinetic study and the apparent 1st order degradation rate constant (K), t1/2, t90, and the activation energies were calculated for each temperature and at 25u2009°C. The optimized UPLC-MS/MS method is suitable for further TRL assay either in biological fluids or in the presence of impurities.

Validated stability-indicating HPLC method for the determination of mesna in presence of its degradation products.

A rapid and simple stability-indicating liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for analysis of mesna in the presence of its degradation products in drug substance and drug products in a run time not >5 min. The separation was achieved on a RP amide C16 column at room temperature using methanol-phosphate buffer (10:90, v/v, pH 3.0) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min(-1) and UV detection at 210 nm. The detector response for mesna was linear over the selected concentration range from 50 to 1000 µg mL(-1) with a correlation coefficient 0.9998. The limit of detection and the limit of quantitation were 7.5 and 22.7 µg mL(-1), respectively. The solution was stable for at least 5 days. Baseline resolution between mesna and its degradation products was achieved. Diode array detection peak purity tests showed no peak interfered with mesna peak. Moreover, the method was successfully applied for the determination of mesna in two different commercially available drug products.

Comparative study between different simple methods manipulating ratio spectra for the analysis of alogliptin and metformin co-formulated with highly different concentrations

Different simple spectrophotometric methods were developed for simultaneous determination of alogliptin and metformin manipulating their ratio spectra with successful application on recently approved combination, Kazano® tablets. Spiking was implemented to detect alogliptin in spite of its low contribution in the pharmaceutical formulation as low quantity in comparison to metformin. Linearity was acceptable over the concentration range of 2.5-25.0μg/mL and 2.5-15.0μg/mL for alogliptin and metformin, respectively using derivative ratio, ratio subtraction coupled with extended ratio subtraction and spectrum subtraction coupled with constant multiplication. The optimized methods were compared using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and proved to be accurate for assay of the investigated drugs in their pharmaceutical dosage form.

LC–MS/MS Determination of Empagliflozin and Metformin

A new LC-MS/MS method was developed for determination of empagliflozin and metformin. Bridged Ethylene Hybrid C18 column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm), isocratic elution based on 0.1% aqueous formic acid:acetonitrile (75:25, v/v) as a mobile phase, column temperature at 55°C and flow rate at 0.2 mL min-1 were used. The mass spectrometer was operated under multiple reaction monitoring mode using electrospray ionization by monitoring the transition pairs (precursor to product ion) of m/z 451.04-71.07 for empagliflozin and m/z 130.11-71.14 for metformin in the positive mode. The validation parameters were acceptable over concentration ranges of 5-1,000 ng mL-1 and 50-25,000 ng mL-1 for empagliflozin and metformin, respectively. The optimized method was validated according to International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. Regression parameters, limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision and pharmaceutical formulation analysis were investigated. The developed method was proved to be accurate for the quality control of recently approved Synjardy® tablets.