Development of a capillary electrophoretic method for the separation of diastereoisomers of a new human immunodeficiency virus protease inhibitor

Darunavir: A comprehensive profile

Darunavir: (3R,3aS,6aR)-hexahydrofuro[2,3-b]furan-3-yl [(2S,3R)-4-{[(4-aminophenyl)sulfonyl] (isobutyl)amino}-3-hydroxy-1-phenyl-2-butanyl]carbamate is a synthetic non-peptide protease inhibitor. On June 2006, it was first approved by the Food and Drug administration (FDA) for treatment of resistant type-1 of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In July 2016, the FDA expanded the approval for use of darunavir in pregnant women with HIV infection. Darunavir prevents the replication of HIV virus by inhibiting the catalytic activity of the HIV-1 protease enzyme, and selectively inhibits the cleavage of HIV encoded Gag-Pol polyproteins in virus-infected cells, which prevents the formation of mature infectious virus particles. Darunavir is unique among currently available protease inhibitors because it maintains antiretroviral activity against a variety of multidrug-resistant HIV strains. This article discusses, by a critical extensive review of the literature, the description of darunavir in terms of its names, formulae, elemental composition, appearance, and use in the treatment of HIV-infected patients. The article also discusses the methods for preparation of darunavir, its physical-chemical properties, analytical methods for its determination, pharmacological properties, and dosing information.

Characterization of the Oxidative Degradation Product of Darunavir by LC-MS/MS

A rapid, selective, and reliable LC-MSⁿ method has been developed and validated for the isolation and structural characterization of the degradation product of darunavir (DRV). DRV, an HIV-1 protease inhibitor, was subjected to intrinsic oxidative stress conditions using 30% hydrogen peroxide and the degradation profile was studied. The oxidative degradation of DRV resulted in one degradation product. The unknown degradation product was separated on a Hibar Purospher C₁₈ (250 mm × 4.6 mm; 5 µm) column by using 0.01 M ammonium formate (pH 3.0) and acetonitrile as mobile phase in the ratio of 50:50, v/v. The eluents were monitored at 263 nm using a UV detector. The isolated degradation product was characterized by UPLC-Q-TOF and its fragmentation pathway was proposed. The proposed structure of the degradation product was confirmed by HRMS analysis. The developed stability-indicating LC method was validated with respect to accuracy, precision, specificity/selectivity, and linearity. No prior reports were found in the literature about the oxidative degradation behavior of DRV.

Dried blood spot analysis of (+) and (-) darunavir enantiomers on immobilized amylose tris-(3, 5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) LC and its application to pharmacokinetics

Dried blood spot analysis is an innovative novel blood sampling technique gaining interest in drug discovery and development processes owing to its inherent advantages over the conventional whole blood, plasma or serum sample collection. The present manuscript describes the development and validation of a highly sensitive and precise method of evaluation of pharmacokinetics of (+) and (-) darunavir enantiomers on rat dried blood spots. The enantiomers on rat dried blood spots were extracted into methanol and separated by LC on a Chiralpak IA column using hexane and ethanol containing 0.1% DEA (75:25, v/v) as a mobile phase at 20°C; both the enantiomers were detected at 266 nm using a photodiode array detector. The method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision and stability as per the US Food and Drug and Administration guidelines. The hematocrit effect on extraction recovery was evaluated and the mean recoveries of (-) and (+) enantiomers of darunavir from dried blood spots were found to be 85.76 and 88.91% respectively. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were 3.1-8.4 and 0.8-4.8% respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of (+) and (-) enantiomers of darunavir on rat dried blood spots.

Quality Control of Protease Inhibitors

Protease inhibitors (PIs) are potent competitive inhibitors of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) widely used in the treatment of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and prescribed in combination with other antiretroviral drugs. So far ten PIs were approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of HIV infection. In this mini review, quality control methods of each PI are discussed on the basis of analytical techniques published in the literature. Special attention is given to summarize the LC methods described for the analysis of the selected PIs in both drug substances and products with the available literature till date.

Recent advances in the development and application of microemulsion EKC

Microemulsion EKC (MEEKC) is an electrodriven separation technique. Separations are typically achieved using oil-in-water microemulsions, which are composed of nanometre-sized oil droplets suspended in an aqueous buffer. The droplets are stabilised by a surfactant and a cosurfactant. The novel use of water-in-oil microemulsions has also been investigated. This review summarises the advances in the development of MEEKC separations and also the different areas of application including determination of log P values, pharmaceutical applications, chiral analysis, natural products and bioanalytical separations and the use of new methods such as multiplexed MEEKC and high speed MEEKC. Recent applications (2004-2006) are tabulated for each area with microemulsion composition details.

Recent advances in pharmaceutical applications of chiral capillary electrophoresis

This review article summarizes developments and applications of chiral capillary electrophoresis (CE) in the pharmaceutical field published from January 2004 to June 2005. Due to the tremendous number of publications, this article is aimed to focus on major developments in chiral separations and some selected applications rather than to provide a descriptive overview of all published papers. Valuable information is also collected from several excellent reviews published during this period. Developments are classified according to CE modes, namely capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC), microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC). In the CZE section, different types of chiral selectors including cyclodextrins, oligo- and polysaccharides, crown ethers, macrocyclic antibiotics, ligand exchange systems and proteins are described. Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis is also included in this section. Coupling CE to MS is discussed in a separate part, followed by a summary of selected pharmaceutical applications of enantioselective CE. Finally, some conclusions are drawn and prospects of CE in chiral analysis are also drafted.

Recent applications of microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography

Compared to MEKC, the presence of a water-immiscible oil phase in the microemulsion droplets of microemulsion EKC (MEEKC) gives rise to some special properties, such as enhanced solubilization capacity and enlarged migration window, which could allow for the improved separation of various hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds, with reduced sample pretreatment steps, unique selectivities and/or higher efficiencies. Typically, stable and optically clear oil-in-water microemulsions containing a surfactant (SDS), oil (octane or heptane), and cosurfactant (1-butanol) in phosphate buffer are employed as separation media in conventional MEEKC. However, in recent years, the applicability of reverse MEEKC (water-in-oil microemulsions) has also been demonstrated, such as for the enhanced separation of highly hydrophobic substances. Also, during the past few years, the development and application of MEEKC for the separation of chiral molecules has been expanded, based on the use of enantioselective microemulsions that contained a chiral surfactant or chiral alcohol. On the other hand, the application of MEEKC for the characterization of the lipophilicity of chemical substances remains an active and important area of research, such as the use of multiplex MEEKC for the high-throughput determination of partition coefficients (log P values) of pharmaceutical compounds. In this review, recent applications of MEEKC (covering the period from 2003 to 2005) are reported. Emphases are placed on the discussion of MEEKC in the separation of chiral molecules and highly hydrophobic substances, as well as in the determination of partition coefficients, followed by a survey of recent applications of MEEKC in the analysis of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and health-care products, biological and environmental compounds, plant materials, and foods.

Recent advances in peptide and peptidomimetic stereoisomer separations by capillary electromigration techniques

As the stereochemistry of peptides determines their physicochemical properties and biological activities, analytical methods able to discriminate between peptide stereoisomers are important especially with regard to pharmaceutical peptides and peptidomimetics. The present review summarizes recent developments in peptide and peptidomimetic stereoisomer separations by capillary electromigration techniques. The majority of separations were performed by CE while only few reports have been published on the subject of electrochromatography. In addition to systematic studies on the applicability of certain buffer additives and the evaluation of specific experimental conditions, there have been attempts to understand the mechanistic aspects of peptide stereoisomer separations as well as to analyze the structure of peptide-CD complexes.