A new stability indicating reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of enantiomeric purity of a DPP-4 inhibitor drug linagliptin

Identification and Structural Characterization of Degradation Products of Linagliptin by Mass Spectrometry Techniques

As part of the development and production of pharmaceuticals, the purity of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients stands as a fundamental parameter that significantly influences the quality, safety, and efficacy of the final drug product. Impurities in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients are various unwanted substances that can appear during the whole manufacturing process, from raw materials to the final product. These impurities can stem from multiple sources, including starting materials, intermediates, reagents, solvents, and even degradation products resulting from exposure to environmental factors such as heat, light, or moisture. Their presence can potentially compromise the therapeutic effect of the drug, introduce unexpected side effects, or even pose safety risks to patients. This study aims to conduct the forced degradation of linagliptin and subsequently attempt to identify the resulting degradants. The degradation procedures were carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee for Harmonization. The degradation profile of linagliptin was investigated under various conditions, including acid hydrolysis, alkaline hydrolysis, oxidation, heat, and light exposure, utilizing ultra-performance liquid chromatography connected to a photo array detector. Identification and characterization of the degradation products were achieved using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a single quadrupole detector mass spectrometer and also a liquid chromatography coupled with a high-resolution mass spectrometry. The identified degradation products demonstrate that linagliptin is particularly susceptible to degradation when exposed to acid and peroxide. Whereas, no significant degradation effects were observed under alkali, thermolytic, and photolytic conditions.

New enantioselective liquid chromatography method development and validation of dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors using a macrocyclic glycopeptide (vancomycin) chiral stationary phase under polar ionic mode condition

The direct separation of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-4) inhibitors such as Sitagliptin (STG), Linagliptin (LIG), and Saxagliptin (SAG) enantiomers in normal phase conditions have been achieved on immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs), as well as on the macrocyclic glycopeptide vancomycin chiral stationary phase (Chirobiotic V2) under polar ionic mode. The enantiomers of these targets could be separated completely (resolution factor Rs > 2) using the Chirobiotic V2 column in polar ionic mode with the mobile phase (MeOH/AcOH/TEA 100/0.3/0.1 v/v/v) in an isocratic elution at 1.0 ml min^-1 . The effect of the mobile phase composition on separation, including buffer salts, acid-base modifiers, and analyte structures, was evaluated. The developed technique was validated in the polar ionic mode according to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Q2R1 guidelines in terms of accuracy, precision, selectivity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ). The calibration curve was linear in a concentration range from LOQ to 3.75 μg/ml. The LOD and LOQ of STG, LIG, and SAG were 0.15 and 0.45, 0.15 and 0.50, 0.16 and 0.50, respectively. The proposed method is said to be selective, accurate, and precise. Finally, the validated method was used successfully for the quantitative determination of DPP-4 enantiomers in pharmaceutical analytes.

An electrochemical molecularly imprinted sensor based on CuBi2O4/rGO@MoS2 nanocomposite and its utilization for highly selective and sensitive for linagliptin assay

The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) is an outstanding electrochemical tool that demonstrates good chemical sensitivity and stability. These main advantages, coupled with the material's vast microfabrication flexibility, make molecularly imprinted sensors an attractive sensing device. Herein, it was aimed to develop a state-of-art molecularly imprinted sensor based on CuBi₂O₄/rGO@MoS₂ nanocomposite to be utilized for the detection of linagliptin (LNG), a novel hypoglycemic drug. The electrochemical characterizations of linagliptin on the surface of the modified electrode was examined via cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Several characterization methods including transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX), were utilized for electrode characterization. The LNG imprinted voltammetric sensor was developed in 80.0 mM phenol containing 20.0 mM LNG. CuBi₂O₄/rGO@MoS₂ nanocomposite on LNG imprinted screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) (MIP/CuBi₂O₄/rGO@MoS₂ nanocomposite/SCPE) exhibited a linear relationship between peak current and LNG concentration in the range 0.07-0.5 nM with a detection limit of 0.057 nM. In the existence of interfering substances, an LNG imprinted electrode was utilized to analyze urine, human plasma, and tablet samples with adequate selectivity. The developed sensor was also illustrated for stability, repeatability, reproducibility, and reusability.

Determination of linagliptin and empagliflozin by UPLC and HPTLC techniques aided by lean six sigma approach

Two chromatographic techniques were developed and validated for simultaneous determination of the newly co-formulated antidiabetic combination linagliptin and empagliflozin in their pure form and film-coated tables. The first technique was UPLC; the separation and resolution of both analytes were achieved using a Zorbax eclipse plus C₁₈ column applying an isocratic elution based on phosphate buffer pH 4-acetonitrile (65:35, v/v) as a running mobile phase at flow rate 1.5 ml/min and the effluent was monitored at 220 nm. Augmentation of Lean Six Sigma with UPLC and HPTLC methods had a major impact on the development of robust specifications to ensure that the quality at six sigma level has a high level of statistical confidence and target performance. On the chromatogram, empagliflozin and linagliptin appeared at retention times of 1.417 and 2.453 min, respectively. The second technique was HPTLC; both analytes were fairly well resolved and separated using a developing mobile phase composed of ethyl acetate-chloroform-acetonitrile (55:25:20 by volume). The values of retention factor (R_F ) were 0.29 and 0.53 for linagliptin and empagliflozin, respectively. All variables were investigated to adjust the whole conditions.

Application of online liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry for structural characterization of linagliptin degradation products and related impurities

RATIONALE

Linagliptin is a drug used for the management of type 2 diabetes, which is a leading cause of global ill health and mortality. Impurities can affect the quality and safety of drug products and eventually may affect human health. A robust, sensitive and reliable analytical method is required to detect, characterize, quantify and control the presence of impurities in finished pharmaceutical products such as linagliptin.

METHODS

Linagliptin was stressed under harsh conditions as in the ICH Q1A (R2) guidelines to generate degradation products. The degradation products and process-related impurities were separated using an InertSustain C8 column (4.6 mm × 150 mm, 5 μm) and characterized by tandem quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry in positive mode electrospray ionization. The developed method was validated according to the ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines.

RESULTS

Upon forced degradation, 12 degradation products were obtained (6 in oxidative stress and 3 in each of acid and alkaline hydrolysis). The special finding here was the presence of a pair of isomeric degradation products in acid hydrolysis and the formation of degradation products in base hydrolysis and oxidative degradation caused by the use of acetonitrile as a diluent. The 12 degradation products and 6 process-related substances were successfully identified using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

CONCLUSIONS

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validated for the separation of the 12 degradation products and 6 process-related impurities. Structural characterization of all impurities was carried out using fragmentation pathways obtained from tandem mass spectrometry. The method was sufficiently sensitive and reproducible for quality control of linagliptin and for further research studies.

A capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of the linagliptin enantiomeric impurity

Linagliptin is a highly specific, long-acting inhibitor that is used as an orally administrable agent for type-2 diabetes treatment. Because only the R-enantiomer is of clinical use, we developed a capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of the enantiomeric impurity of this compound. Carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin was selected as the chiral selector for the separation of linagliptin enantiomers. Design of experiments and desirability functions were used for the analytical optimization, which was focused on understanding and improving the electrophoretic process. The effects of significant parameters (background electrolyte concentration and pH, cyclodextrin concentration, temperature, and voltage) were thoroughly investigated. The complete separation of linagliptin and its enantiomeric impurity with baseline resolution was achieved within 10 min on an uncoated fused-silica capillary (50 μm inner diameter, 365 μm outer diameter, 64.5/56 cm in total/ effective length) maintained at 25°C, under an applied voltage of 28.0 kV. The background electrolyte contained 70 mM sodium acetate and 4.7 mM carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin, and the pH was adjusted to 6.10. The method was validated, and a limit of quantitation of 0.05% for the impurity was estimated.

Square-wave Adsorptive Anodic Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Antidiabetic Drug Linagliptin in Pharmaceutical Formulations and Biological Fluids Using a Pencil Graphite Electrode

A simple, sensitive, low-cost, quick and reliable square-wave anodic stripping voltammetric method is described for the determination of the antidiabetic drug Linagliptin (LNG) in pure form, tablets, and spiked human urine and plasma samples. Using a pencil graphite electrode (PGE), cyclic voltammetry (CV) was applied to study the electrochemical behavior of LNG. In a Teorell-Stenhagen buffer (pH 5.5) containing 0.1 M NaClO₄ as a supporting electrolyte, the LNG yields an irreversible well-defined oxidation peak at about 1.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl electrode. The various affecting factors, such as the pH, buffer type, supporting electrolyte, accumulation potential, scan rate and accumulation time, were tested and optimized. Also, square-wave adsorptive anodic stripping voltammetric (SWAdASV) studies show that the peak current various linearly over the LNG concentration range of 0.24 - 5.20 μg mL^-1 (R² = 0.9994). The detection and quantification limits were calculated to be 0.10 and 0.33 μg mL^-1, respectively. The proposed procedure exhibits a good precision, selectivity, and stability and was applied successfully to determine the LNG in pharmaceutical formulations (tablets) and biological fluids (spiked human urine and plasma samples).