A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric assay for the antihypertensive agent azelnidipine in human plasma with application to clinical pharmacokinetics studies

Stability-indicating LC Method for Quantification of Azelnidipine: Synthesis and Characterization of Oxidative Degradation Product

Objectives

In the work presented here, the degradation behavior of azelnidipine under diverse forced degradation conditions was studied. A stability-indicating liquid chromatographic method was established which could separate and resolve azelnidipine from its degradation products. Further, chemical kinetics under acidic and alkaline conditions were studied, and validation studies were performed.

Materials and Methods

Using reversed-phase chromatography, azelnidipine and its formed degradants were resolved using phosphate buffer (pH 3.0) and methanol in a mixture of 10:90% v/v as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. All eluents were detected at a wavelength of 256 nm.

Results

Azelnidipine was degraded under acid, alkali, wet heat, and oxidized environment. The pH-dependent rate of hydrolysis of azelnidipine was studied under acidic and alkaline conditions and chemical kinetics were determined. Further, the oxidative degradation product of azelnidipine was synthesized and characterized as 3-(1-benzhydrylazetidin-3-yl) 5-isopropyl 2-amino-6-methyl-4-(3-nitrophenyl) pyridine-3,5-dicarboxylate (dehydro-AZD).

Conclusion

The susceptibility of azelnidipine to hydrolysis was attributed to the presence of ester at 3 and 5 positions of 1,4 dihydropyridine. Further, under oxidative conditions, the aromatization of 1,4 dihydropyrinine resulted in dehydro-AZD. Azelnidipine followed the first-order reaction under acid and alkali hydrolysis, and was more susceptible to degradation under acidic conditions. The synthesized and confirmed dehydro-AZD was found as one of the metabolites and impurities of azelnidipine. The evaluated validation parameters ascertained the practicality of the method for the quantification of azelnidipine tablets.