Development of a sensitive method for simultaneous determination of fluticasone propionate and salmeterol in plasma samples by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Quantification of fluticasone propionate in human plasma by LC-MS/MS and its application in the pharmacokinetic study of nasal spray at clinical doses

We developed a method for quantifying fluticasone propionate (FP) using general-purpose liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry equipment to measure the plasma concentration of FP for the pharmacokinetic study of FP following the administration of a prescribed nasal spray dose (100 μg). Using ammonium acetate (0.01 M)-formic acid (pH 2.9; 499:1, v/v) and methanol as the mobile phase, 3 pg/mL of FP was quantified. The relative error and standard deviation of the lower limit of quantification were <3.1%. The intra- and interday assay reproducibility was <3.5%. After 15 min of administering 200 μg FP nasal spray as the first dose, the FP concentration detected in the plasma of the two participants was 3.99 and 3.69 pg/mL. Subsequent doses of 100 μg FP were administered twice daily. The area under the plasma concentration-time curve values after 8-10 days of repeated administration of 100 μg of FP were approximately 1.6-fold higher than those achieved following a single administration of 200 μg of FP, which confirmed drug accumulation. The bioavailability of nasal FP was estimated to be 2% and 4%. This knowledge might help in reducing anxiety among patients who avoid using FP nasal spray, fearing its adverse effects.

Molecular Dynamic Study of Mechanism Underlying Nature of Molecular Recognition and the Role of Crosslinker in the Synthesis of Salmeterol-Targeting Molecularly Imprinted Polymer for Analysis of Salmeterol Xinafoate in Biological Fluid

The rational preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in order to have selective extraction of salmeterol xinafoate (SLX) from serum was studied. SLX is an acting β-adrenergic receptor agonist used in the treatment of asthma and has an athletic performance-enhancing effect. Molecular dynamics were used for the simulation of the SLX-imprinted pre-polymerization system, to determine the stability of the system. The computational simulation showed that SLX as a template, 4-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as a monomer, and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as a crosslinker in mol ratio of 1:6:20 had the strongest interaction in terms of the radial distribution functional. To validate the computational result, four polymers were synthesized using the precipitation polymerization method, and MIP with composition and ratio corresponding with the system with the strongest interaction as an MD simulation result showed the best performance, with a recovery of 96.59 ± 2.24% of SLX in spiked serum and 92.25 ± 1.12% when SLX was spiked with another analogue structure. Compared with the standard solid phase extraction sorbent C-18, which had a recovery of 79.11 ± 2.96%, the MIP showed better performance. The harmony between the simulation and experimental results illustrates that the molecular dynamic simulations had a significant role in the study and development of the MIPs for analysis of SLX in biological fluid.

Investigation of spectrophotometric simultaneous absorption of Salmeterol and Fluticasone in Seroflo spray by continuous wavelet transform and radial basis function neural network methods

In this research, the simultaneous absorption of Salmeterol (SAL) and Fluticasone (FLU) in Seroflo spray was investigated using a spectrophotometric device via employing continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and radial basis function neural network (RBF-NN) methods. Root mean square error (RMSE) related to the RBF model was obtained 3.17 × 10^-13 and 1.41 × 10^-13 for SAL and FLU, respectively. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) corresponding to the CWT method were 0.004, 0.280 μg/mL, and 0.431, 0.479 μg/mL for SAL and FLU, respectively. Root mean square error (RMSE) of SAL and FLU was obtained 3.17 × 10^-13 and 1.41 × 10^-13, respectively in RBF-NN method. In the end, the results obtained from all methods were compared with the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a reference method. According to the one-way analysis of variance with a 95% confidence level, there is no significant difference between the proposed techniques and HPLC. Therefore, chemometrics methods are sufficiently accurate, as the reference method for the analysis of drugs. The suggested methods are simple, fast, and cheap. Also, there is no need for pre-preparation steps. These methods can be used for quality control laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry.

Quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance method for simultaneous analysis of fluticasone propionate and azelastine hydrochloride in nasal spray formulation

A facile, rapid, accurate and selective quantitative proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-qNMR) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of fluticasone propionate (FLP) and azelastine hydrochloride (AZH) in pharmaceutical nasal spray for the first time. The ¹H-qNMR analysis of the studied analytes was performed using inositol as the internal standard and dimethyl sulfoxide-d₆ (DMSO-d₆) as the solvent. The quantitative selective proton signal of FLP was doublet of doublet at 6.290, 6.294, 6.316 and 6.319 ppm, while that of AZH was doublet at 8.292 and 8.310 ppm. The internal standard (inositol) produced a doublet signal at 3.70 and 3.71 ppm. The method was rectilinear over the concentration ranges of 0.25-20.0 and 0.2-15.0 mg ml^-1 for FLP and AZH, respectively. No labelling or pretreatment steps were required for NMR analysis of the studied analytes. The proposed ¹H-qNMR method was validated efficiently according to the International Council on Harmonisation guidelines in terms of linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision, specificity and stability. Moreover, the method was applied to assay the analytes in their combined nasal spray formulation. The results ensured the linearity (r ² > 0.999), precision (% RSD < 1.5), stability, specificity and selectivity of the developed method.

Determination of salmeterol, α-hydroxysalmeterol and fluticasone propionate in human urine and plasma for doping control using UHPLC-QTOF-MS

Salmeterol and fluticasone are included in the Prohibited List annually issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency. While for other permitted beta-2 agonists a threshold has been established, above which any finding constitutes an Adverse Analytical Finding, this is not the case with salmeterol. The salmeterol metabolite, α-hydroxysalmeterol, has been described as a potentially more suitable biomarker for the misuse of inhaled salmeterol. In this study, a new and rapid UHPLC-QTOF-MS method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of salmeterol, α-hydroxysalmeterol and fluticasone in human urine and plasma, which can be used for doping control. The analytes of interest were extracted by means of solid phase extraction and were separated on a Zorbax Eclipse Plus C₁₈ column. Detection was performed in a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization source, in positive mode for the detection of salmeterol and its metabolite and in negative mode for the detection of fluticasone. Method was validated over a linear range from 0.10 to 2.00 ng/ml for salmeterol and fluticasone, and from 1.00 to 20.0 ng/ml for α-hydroxysalmeterol, in urine, whereas in plasma, the linear range was from 0.025 to 0.500 ng/ml for salmeterol and fluticasone, respectively.

Eco-Friendly Green Liquid Chromatographic Separations of a Novel Combination of Azelastine and Fluticasone in the Presence of their Pharmaceutical Dosage form Additives

Background:

The first highly sensitive, rapid and specific green microemulsion liquid chromatographic (MELC) method was established for the simultaneous estimation of fluticasone propionate (FLU) and azelastine HCl (AZL) in the presence of their pharmaceutical dosage form additives (phenylethyl alcohol (PEA) and benzalkonium chloride (BNZ)).

Methods:

The separation was performed on a C18 column using (o/w) microemulsion as a mobile phase which contains 0.2 M sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) as surfactant, 10% butanol as cosurfactant, 1% n-octanol as internal phase and 0.3% triethylamine (TEA) adjusted at pH 6 by 0.02 M phosphoric acid; with UV detection at 220 nm and programmed with flow rate of 1 mL/min.

Results:

The validation characteristics e.g. linearity, lower limit of quantification (LOQ), lower limit of detection (LOD), accuracy, precision, robustness and specificity were investigated. The proposed method showed linearity over the concentration range of (0.5-25 µg/mL) and (0.1-25 µg/mL) for FLU and AZL, respectively. Besides that, the method was adopted in a short chromatographic run with satisfactory resolution factors of (2.39, 3.78 and 6.74 between PEA/FLU, FLU/AZL and AZL/BNZ), respectively. The performed method was efficiently applied to pharmaceutical nasal spray with (mean recoveries ± SD) (99.80 ± 0.97) and (100.26 ± 0.96) for FLU and AZL, respectively.

Conclusion:

The suggested method was based on simultaneous determination of FLU and AZL in the presence of PEA and BNZ in pure form, laboratory synthetic mixture and its combined pharmaceutical dosage form using green MELC technique with UV detection. The proposed method appeared to be superior to the reported ones of being more sensitive and specific, as well as the separation was achieved with good performance in a relatively short analysis time (less than 7.5 min). Highly acceptable values of LOD and % RSD make this method superior to be used in quality control laboratories with of HPLC technique.

Pharmacokinetic analysis of inhaled salmeterol in asthma patients: Evidence from two dry powder inhalers

Salmeterol (SAL) is a long-acting β2-adrenergic agonist, which is widely used in the therapy of asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics (PK) of inhaled salmeterol in asthma patients using two different dry powder inhalers. This analysis was based on data from 45 subjects who participated in a two-sequence, four-period crossover bioequivalence (BE) study after single administration of the test (T) and reference (R) products. In order to mimic more closely the real treatment conditions, activated charcoal was not co-administered. Plasma concentration-time (C-t) data were initially analysed using classic non-compartmental PK approaches, while the main objective of the study was to apply population PK modeling. The relative fraction of the dose absorbed via the lungs (R_L ) was set as a parameter in the structural model. The plasma C-t profiles of salmeterol showed a biphasic time course indicating a parallel pulmonary and gastrointestinal (GI) absorption. A two-compartment disposition model with first order absorption from the GI and very rapid absorption from lungs (like an i.v. bolus) was found to describe successfully the C-t profiles of salmeterol. The estimated R_L value was 13% suggesting a high gut deposition of inhaled salmeterol. Women were found to exert less capability to eliminate salmeterol than men, while body weight (in allometric form) was found to be an important covariate on the peripheral volume of distribution.

Simultaneous determination of Fluticasone propionate and Azelastine hydrochloride in the presence of pharmaceutical dosage form additives

Fluticasone propionate (FLU) and Azelastine hydrochloride (AZE) are co-formulated with phenylethyl alcohol (PEA) and Benzalkonium chloride (BENZ) (as preservatives) in pharmaceutical dosage form for treatment of seasonal allergies. Different spectrophotometric methods were used for the simultaneous determination of cited drugs in the dosage form. Direct spectrophotometric method was used for determining of AZE, while Derivative of double divisor of ratio spectra (DD-RS), Ratio subtraction coupled with ratio difference method (RS-RD) and Mean centering of the ratio spectra (MCR) are used for the determination of FLU. The linearity of the proposed methods was investigated in the range of 5.00-40.00 and 5.00-80.00μg/mL for FLU and AZE, respectively. The specificity of the developed methods was investigated by analyzing laboratory prepared mixtures containing different ratios of cited drugs in addition to PEA and their pharmaceutical dosage form. The validity of the proposed methods was assessed using the standard addition technique. The obtained results were statistically compared with those obtained by official or the reported method for FLU or AZE, respectively showing no significant difference with respect to accuracy and precision at p=0.05.