Thermodynamics of solutions IV: Solvation of ketoprofen in comparison with other NSAIDs

Health is the greatest wealth: Quest for a diagnostic check for thermochemistry of pure drug compounds

The development of pharmaceutical formulations and the optimisation of drug synthesis are not possible without knowledge of thermodynamics. At the same time, the quantity and quality of the available data is not at a level that meets modern requirements. A convenient diagnostic approach is desirable to assess the quality of available experimental thermodynamic data of drugs. A comprehensive set of available data on phase transitions of profens family drugs was analysed using new complementary measurements and structure-property correlations. The consistent sets of solid-gas, liquid-gas and solid-liquid phase transitions were evaluated for twelve active pharmaceutical ingredients based on alkanoic acid derivatives and recommended for the calculations of the pharmaceutical processes. A "centerpiece approach" proposed in this work helped to perform the "health check" of the thermochemical data. The evaluated data on the sublimation enthalpies were used to derive the crystal lattice energies of the profens and to correlate the water solubilities with the sublimation vapour pressures and molecular parameters. A "paper-and-pen" approach proposed in this work can be extended to the diagnosis of "sick" or "healthy" thermodynamic data for drugs with a different structure than those studied in this work.

Solubility and thermodynamic analysis of ketoprofen in organic solvents

The solubility of the racemic solid phase of ketoprofen (KTP) in methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, butanol, acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, 1,4-dioxane and toluene has been determined between 273 and 303 K by a gravimetric method. FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, SEM and PXRD, have been used to characterise the solid phase. The melting data and heat capacity of solid and melt have been determined by DSC, and used to estimate fusion thermodynamics and the activity of the solid phase as functions of temperature. Empirical and semi-empirical models have been fitted to experimental solubility data. The solution activity coefficients reveal positive deviation from ideality in all solvents except for in dioxane, and very close to ideality in methanol. The solubility is fairly high in the alcohols but decrease with increasing hydrocarbon chain. Generally and due to the presence of the carboxylic acid group, KTP is more readily dissolved in polar protic solvents, followed in order by polar aprotic and non-polar solvents. However, the highest solubility is found in dioxane, classified as a non-polar solvent, but notably though the molecule having two strong hydrogen bond accepting functionalities, and no hydrogen bond donation capability.

Solubility Advantage of Amorphous Ketoprofen. Thermodynamic and Kinetic Aspects by Molecular Dynamics and Free Energy Approaches

Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of crystalline (c-KTP) and amorphous (a-KTP) ketoprofen dissolution in water have been investigated by molecular dynamics simulation focusing on free energy properties. Absolute free energies of all relevant species and phases have been determined by thermodynamic integration on a novel path, first connecting the harmonic to the anharmonic system Hamiltonian at low T and then extending the result to the temperature of interest. The free energy required to transfer one ketoprofen molecule from the crystal to the solution is in fair agreement with the experimental value. The absolute free energy of the amorphous form is 19.58 kJ/mol higher than for the crystal, greatly enhancing the ketoprofen concentration in water, although as a metastable species in supersaturated solution. The kinetics of the dissolution process has been analyzed by computing the free energy profile along a reaction coordinate bringing one ketoprofen molecule from the crystal or amorphous phase to the solvated state. This computation confirms that, compared to the crystal form, the dissolution rate is nearly 7 orders of magnitude faster for the amorphous form, providing one further advantage to the latter in terms of bioavailability. The problem of drug solubility, of great practical importance, is used here as a test bed for a refined method to compute absolute free energies, which could be of great interest in biophysics and drug discovery in particular.

Investigation of Drug for Pulmonary Administration-Model Pulmonary Surfactant Monolayer Interactions Using Langmuir-Blodgett Monolayer and Molecular Dynamics Simulation: A Case Study of Ketoprofen

Pulmonary administration is widely used for the treatment of lung diseases. The interaction between drug molecules and pulmonary surfactants affects the efficacy of the drug directly. The location and distribution of drug molecules in a model pulmonary surfactant monolayer under different surface pressures can provide vivid information on the interaction between drug molecules and pulmonary surfactants during the pulmonary administration. Ketoprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug for pulmonary administration. The effect of ketoprofen molecules on the lipid monolayer containing 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-rac-glycerol (DPPG) is studied by surface pressure (π)-area (A) isotherms and compressibility modulus (C_s^-1)-surface pressure (π) isotherms. The location and distribution of ketoprofen molecules in a lipid monolayer under different surface pressures are explored by surface tension, density profile, radial distribution function (RDF), and the potential of mean force (PMF) simulated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The introduction of ketoprofen molecules affects the properties of DPPC/DPPG monolayers and the location and distribution of ketoprofen molecules in monolayers with various surface pressures. The existence of ketoprofen molecules hinders the formation of liquid-condensed (LC) films and decreases the compressibility of DPPC/DPPG monolayers. The location and distribution of ketoprofen molecules in the lipid monolayer are affected by cation-π interaction between the choline group of lipids and the benzene ring of ketoprofen, the steric hindrance of the lipid head groups, and the hydrophobicity of ketoprofen molecule itself, comprehensively. The contact state of lipid head group with water is determined by surface pressure, which affects the interaction between drug molecules and lipids and further dominates the location and distribution of ketoprofen in the lipid monolayer. This work confirms that ketoprofen molecules can affect the property and the inner structure of DPPC/DPPG monolayers during breathing. Furthermore, the results obtained using a mixed monolayer containing two major pulmonary surfactants DPPC/DPPG and ketoprofen molecules will be helpful for the in-depth understanding of the mechanism of inhaled administration therapy.

Performance of 3D-RISM-KH in Predicting Hydration Free Energy: Effect of Solute Parameters

The three-dimensional reference interaction site model molecular solvation theory with the Kovalenko-Hirata closure relation has been shown to produce excellent solvation characteristics for a large class of (bio)chemical systems in solution. Correct calculation of hydration free energy is central to successful application of any solvation model. In order to find out the best possible force-field parameters to be used for hydration free energy calculation with the aforementioned theory, we have developed an extended database containing a large number of experimental solvation free energies available in the current literature and used a plethora of theoretical models for assessment. The general Amber force field was found to perform satisfactorily, whereas special care should be taken in solute charge assignment with the universal force field.

Are the Sublimation Thermodynamics of Organic Molecules Predictable?

We compare a range of computational methods for the prediction of sublimation thermodynamics (enthalpy, entropy, and free energy of sublimation). These include a model from theoretical chemistry that utilizes crystal lattice energy minimization (with the DMACRYS program) and quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) models generated by both machine learning (random forest and support vector machines) and regression (partial least squares) methods. Using these methods we investigate the predictability of the enthalpy, entropy and free energy of sublimation, with consideration of whether such a method may be able to improve solubility prediction schemes. Previous work has suggested that the major source of error in solubility prediction schemes involving a thermodynamic cycle via the solid state is in the modeling of the free energy change away from the solid state. Yet contrary to this conclusion other work has found that the inclusion of terms such as the enthalpy of sublimation in QSPR methods does not improve the predictions of solubility. We suggest the use of theoretical chemistry terms, detailed explicitly in the Methods section, as descriptors for the prediction of the enthalpy and free energy of sublimation. A data set of 158 molecules with experimental sublimation thermodynamics values and some CSD refcodes has been collected from the literature and is provided with their original source references.

The solubility of liquid and solid compounds in dry octan-1-ol

Using literature data on solubilities, equations have been constructed for the correlation of solubilities of liquids and solids in dry octanol, as log Soct (M). The best equation statistically uses Abraham descriptors together with the compound melting point. For 282 compounds the equation standard deviation is no more than 0.47 log units. If the melting point term is omitted the standard deviation rises to 0.63 log units. It is suggested that if Abraham descriptors are available, these equations represent the most satisfactory equations for the correlation and estimation of solubilities in dry octanol. If these descriptors are not available, then the simple equation of Yalkowsky can be used, although for 223 compounds the equation standard deviation rises to 0.71 log units.

Preparation and characterization of ketoprofen-loaded microspheres for embolization

To deliver drug locally and relieve the syndrome of pain after uterine artery embolization, N-[tris (hydroxymethyl) methyl] acrylamide-gelatin microspheres were prepared based on inverse suspension polymerization and then separated into a number of subgroups (150-350, 350-560, 560-710, 710-1,000, and 1,000-1,430 μm) by wet-sieving. The microspheres were dried by lyophilization or by washing with anhydrous ethanol. And ketoprofen was loaded by soaking dried blank microspheres into concentrated ketoprofen ethanol solution. The ketoprofen loading level in different subgroups of microspheres was measured and found higher when the microspheres were dried by lyophilization. Equilibrium water content and mean diameters of microspheres decreased after drug loading, especially in subgroups with larger size. The microspheres went through the catheter without any difficulty. Compression and relaxation tests were performed on microspheres before lyophilization, embosphere™, microspheres after lyophilization and ketoprofen loading microspheres. The Young's moduli were 54.74, 64.19, 98.15, and 120.44 kPa, respectively. The release of ketoprofen from microspheres in different subgroups was studied by using the USPII method and T-cell apparatus, respectively. The results indicate that the release rate of ketoprofen depends upon the diameter of microspheres, the type of dissolution apparatus and the flow rate of media in the case that T-cell apparatus was applied. The CH50 test shows that the activation of complement by ketoprofen-loaded microspheres was lower than by blank ones.

The SAMPL2 blind prediction challenge: introduction and overview

The interactions between a molecule and the aqueous environment underpin any process that occurs in solution, from simple chemical reactions to protein-ligand binding to protein aggregation. Fundamental measures of the interaction between molecule and aqueous phase, such as the transfer energy between gas phase and water or the energetic difference between two tautomers of a molecule in solution, remain nontrivial to predict accurately using current computational methods. SAMPL2 represents the third annual blind prediction of transfer energies, and the first time tautomer ratios were included in the challenge. Over 60 sets of predictions were submitted, and each participant also attempted to estimate the error in their predictions, a task that proved difficult for most. The results of this blind assessment of the state of the field for transfer energy and tautomer ratio prediction both indicate where the field is performing well and point out flaws in current methods.

In Silico Prediction of Drug Solubility: 1. Free Energy of Hydration

As a first step in the computational prediction of drug solubility the free energy of hydration, DeltaG*(vw) in TIP4P water has been computed for a data set of 48 drug molecules using the free energy of perturbation method and the optimized potential for liquid simulations all-atom force field. The simulations were performed in two steps, where first the Coulomb and then the Lennard-Jones interactions between the solute and the water molecules were scaled down from full to zero strength to provide physical understanding and simpler predictive models. The results have been interpreted using a theory assuming DeltaG*(vw) = A(MS)gamma + E(LJ) + E(C)/2 where A(MS) is the molecular surface area, gamma is the water-vapor surface tension, and E(LJ) and E(C) are the solute-water Lennard-Jones and Coulomb interaction energies, respectively. It was found that by a proper definition of the molecular surface area our results as well as several results from the literature were found to be in quantitative agreement using the macroscopic surface tension of TIP4P water. This is in contrast to the surface tension for water around a spherical cavity that previously has been shown to be dependent on the size of the cavity up to a radius of approximately 1 nm. The step of scaling down the electrostatic interaction can be represented by linear response theory.

Towards an understanding of the molecular mechanism of solvation of drug molecules: A thermodynamic approach by crystal lattice energy, sublimation, and solubility exemplified by paracetamol, acetanilide, and phenacetin

Temperature dependencies of saturated vapor pressure for the monoclinic modification of paracetamol (acetaminophen), acetanilide, and phenacetin (acetophenetidin) were measured and thermodynamic functions of sublimation calculated (paracetamol: DeltaGsub298=60.0 kJ/mol; DeltaHsub298=117.9+/-0.7 kJ/mol; DeltaSsub298=190+/-2 J/mol.K; acetanilide: DeltaGsub298=40.5 kJ/mol; DeltaHsub298=99.8+/-0.8 kJ/mol; DeltaSsub298=197+/-2 J/mol.K; phenacetin: DeltaGsub298=52.3 kJ/mol; DeltaHsub298=121.8+/-0.7 kJ/mol; DeltaSsub298=226+/-2 J/mol.K). Analysis of packing energies based on geometry optimization of molecules in the crystal lattices using diffraction data and the program Dmol3 was carried out. Parameters analyzed were: (a) energetic contribution of van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding to the total packing energy; (b) contributions of fragments of the molecules to the packing energy. The fraction of hydrogen bond energy in the packing energy increases as: phenacetin (17.5%)<acetanilide (20.4%)<paracetamol (34.0%). Enthalpies of evaporation were estimated from enthalpies of sublimation and fusion. Activity coefficients of the drugs in n-octanol were calculated from cryoscopic data and by estimation of dilution enthalpy obtained from solubility and calorimetric experiments (for infinite dissolution). Solubility temperature dependencies in n-octanol and n-hexane were measured. The thermodynamic functions of solubility and solvation processes were deduced. Specific and nonspecific solvation terms were distinguished using the transfer from the "inert" n-hexane to the other solvents. The transfer of the molecules from water to n-octanol is enthalpy driven for paracetamol; for acetanilide and phenacetin, entropy driven.

Film drying and complexation effects in the simultaneous skin permeation of ketoprofen and propylene glycol from simple gel formulations

This work investigated the simultaneous permeation of ketoprofen and propylene glycol (PG) across pig ear skin from simple gel formulations administered under simulated in-use conditions. The aims were to quantify rates of permeation of both solvent and active, probe the effects of formulation drying and gain insight into drag/complexation interactions. Simple 3-component gels were formulated using a fixed amount of ketoprofen and hydroxypropyl cellulose thickener with decreasing content of solvent propylene glycol. Multiple finite (5 mg x 15 mg) doses were massaged over 24h into full thickness pig ear skin in vertical Franz-type diffusion cells. The permeation of ketoprofen was inversely proportional to the content of PG, whereas the permeation of PG was directly proportional, although the amount of PG permeated was always greater than ketoprofen, even from the driest gel practically achievable. In this state, the molar ratio of PG/ketoprofen was approximately 12, suggesting that this number of PG molecules constitutes the solvation cage of ketoprofen. Dragging/pulling effect extends throughout the skin and into the receptor compartment and probably the system, in an in vivo situation. Although PG may represent a worse case scenario given its well-documented skin permeation enhancement properties, it is probable that other solvents exert a similar effect on solutes across skin. A drying film will behave in different ways depending on the nature of both the thickener and solvent, where the outcomes are not readily predictable. It is important to account for the fate of all species administered from a topical formulation.

The difference between partitioning and distribution from a thermodynamic point of view: NSAIDs as an example

Solubility and solvation of some NSAIDs were studied in their non-ionic (aqueous buffers of pH 2.0) and ionic molecular form (pH 7.4) over a wide temperature interval. Absolute scale values for the thermodynamic terms (Gibbs energy, enthalpy and entropy) were obtained. Thermodynamic parameters of the transfer of the molecules from one buffer to the other (representing protonation/deprotonation) were derived. It has been found that the thermodynamic characteristics of solvation (hydration) of (+)- and (+/-)-IBP in the buffers show a difference, which is larger than the experimental error. This may be explained by differences in the association states of the molecules in solution. For the other NSAIDs studied, a correlation between the Gibbs energy of transfer, deltaG(tr) (pH 7.4-->pH 2.0) and the pK(a)-value, and a compensation effect between the enthalpic and entropic terms have been revealed. Thermodynamic aspects of the transfer process from the buffers to n-octanol were analysed. The two types of the transfer processes (non-dissociated molecule to octanol (partitioning), and dissociated form to octanol (distribution)) have essentially different driving forces: partitioning is enthalpy driven, whereas the transfer of the ionic form is entropy driven. The following points are discussed: (a) significance of using water-octanol systems (logP as a measure of drug lipophilicity) to describe biological membranes (lipid systems); (b) differences in thermodynamic aspects of the partitioning/distribution processes of these systems; (c) advantages of the present transfer method approach in comparison with temperature dependencies of logP to analyse the driving forces of partitioning/distribution.

Effect of salicylate on the elasticity, bending stiffness, and strength of SOPC membranes

Salicylate is a small amphiphilic molecule which has diverse effects on membranes and membrane-mediated processes. We have utilized micropipette aspiration of giant unilamellar vesicles to determine salicylate's effects on lecithin membrane elasticity, bending rigidity, and strength. Salicylate effectively reduces the apparent area compressibility modulus and bending modulus of membranes in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations above 1 mM, but does not greatly alter the actual elastic compressibility modulus at the maximal tested concentration of 10 mM. The effect of salicylate on membrane strength was investigated using dynamic tension spectroscopy, which revealed that salicylate increases the frequency of spontaneous defect formation and lowers the energy barrier for unstable hole formation. The mechanical and dynamic tension experiments are consistent and support a picture in which salicylate disrupts membrane stability by decreasing membrane stiffness and membrane thickness. The tension-dependent partitioning of salicylate was utilized to calculate the molecular volume of salicylate in the membrane. The free energy of transfer for salicylate insertion into the membrane and the corresponding partition coefficient were also estimated, and indicated favorable salicylate-membrane interactions. The mechanical changes induced by salicylate may affect several biological processes, especially those associated with membrane curvature and permeability.

Solvation and hydration characteristics of ibuprofen and acetylsalicylic acid

Ibuprofen and acetylsalicylic acid were studied by thermoanalytical methods: sublimation calorimetry, solution calorimetry, and with respect to solubility. Upon measuring the temperature dependences of the saturated vapor pressure, enthalpies of sublimation, DeltaH(0) (sub), as well as the entropies of sublimation, DeltaS(0) (sub), and their respective relative fractions in the total process were calculated. The Gibbs energy of solvation in aliphatic alcohols as well as the enthalpic and entropic fractions thereof were also studied and compared with the respective properties of model substances and other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (benzoic acid, diflunisal, flurbiprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen). In all cases, enthalpy was found to be the driving force of the solvation process. Correlations were derived between Gibbs energy of solvation in octanol, DeltaG(Oct) (solv), and the transfer Gibbs energy from water to octanol, DeltaG(0) (tr). Influence of mutual octanol and water solubilities on the driving force of partitioning is discussed. An enthalpy-entropy-compensation effect in octanol was observed, and consequences of deviation from the general trend are also discussed.