Development and validation of HPLC methodology for quantitative estimation of Efinaconazole in topical pharmaceutical formulation prepared in‐house for the treatment of onychomycosis

A Robust HPLC Approach for Quantitation of Camptothecin in Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Matrix and in the Presence of Its Degradation Products

BACKGROUND

Camptothecin is a potent anticancer drug used for the treatment of various cancers.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this research investigation was to develop and validate a new stability-indicating HPLC technique for the quantitative assessment of camptothecin in in-house developed mesoporous silica nanoparticles, a novel nanoformulation matrix for the treatment of cancer.

METHOD

The Waters Inertsil® HPLC column (C18) was used for the chromatographic separation, with a flow rate of 1 mL/min, a column oven temperature of 40°C, an injection volume of 10 µL, a detection wavelength of 216 nm, and a 10 min runtime overall. An isocratic blend of phosphate buffer (10 mM, pH7.0) and acetonitrile (60:40, v/v) served as the mobile phase. Various stress conditions including acid, alkali, oxidative, photolytic, thermal, and humidity environments were tested for the quantitative estimation of the camptothecin through the proposed method.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that the proposed method is specific (peak purity ≥0.999), accurate (99.69-100.64% w/w), precise (RSD, % <2.0), and sensitive (LOD-0.17 µg and LOQ-0.56 µg) in accordance with ICH guideline Q2 (R1). Any unidentified degradation products did not interfere with the drug's estimation. Furthermore, the current method of analysis has eliminated any excipient interference from the matrix effect caused by the numerous excipients of the formulation matrix.

CONCLUSIONS

To quantify camptothecin for routine assay purposes, this research work offers a novel and straightforward HPLC methodology with optimized chromatographic parameters, contributing to the research and development community while ensuring an appropriate and efficient use of the drug through a variety of nanoformulation for cancer treatment.

HIGHLIGHTS

The stability-indicating HPLC method was found to be specific and suitable for routine analysis of camptothecin. The absence of any interference from excipients was confirmed by forced degradation studies.

Development and Validation of HPLC Method for Efinaconazole: Application to Human Nail Permeation Studies

Efinaconazole is the first azole derivative approved by FDA for the topical treatment of onychomycosis. The objective of present study was to develop and validate HPLC method for estimation of efinaconazole in ex vivo human nail permeation study samples. The chromatographic analysis was performed on a HPLC system equipped with diode array detector. The efinaconazole and internal standard (IS) were extracted from the human nail samples by using the protein precipitation method. The samples were injected on to 5 μm Polar C₁₈ 100Å, 4.6 mm × 150 mm column. The mobile phase consisted of 0.01 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate: acetonitrile (36:64) and eluent was monitored at 205 nm. The chromatographic separation of drug and analyte was achieved using isocratic elution at flow rate of 1 mL/min with a total run time of 15 min. The efinaconazole and IS were eluted at 6.4 ± 0.5 and 8.3 ± 0.5 min, respectively. The developed method was validated as per FDA guidelines, and the results met with acceptance criteria. The method developed was specific, and the analyte concentrations were linear at range of 50 to 10000 ng/mL (R² ≥ 0.9981). The validated HPLC method was applied for quantifying efinaconazole in human nail permeation study samples. The permeation of efinaconazole was increased by twofolds with Labarfac CC (15135.4 ± 2233.9 ng/cm²) compared to formulations containing Transcutol P (6892.0 ± 557.6 ng/cm²) and Labrasol (7266.1 ± 790.6 ng/cm²). The study results demonstrate that developed efinaconazole HPLC method can be employed for formulation evaluation and clinical studies.

Determination of Asenapine Maleate in Pharmaceutical and Biological Matrices: A Critical Review of Analytical Techniques over the Past Decade

Asenapine maleate is a second-generation atypical antipsychotic agent used in the treatment of schizophrenia, a neuropsychiatric disorder. It is available as a fast-dissolving sublingual tablet to avoid extensive first-pass metabolism with higher bioavailability as compared to oral formulations. Although, the established therapeutic solutions do not sufficiently satisfy the patient's safety and efficacy needs. Thus, the core research emphasis is to investigate strategies to produce novel formulations with enhanced safety and efficacy. This necessitates the development of robust, precise, and accurate methods for quantification of asenapine maleate in different sample matrices. Given the foregoing information, the current analysis concentrates on the different analytical techniques used to assess asenapine maleate in bulk, pharmaceutical formulations, and biological specimens. Reverse-phase HPLC coupled with UV detection is a majorly (nearly 50% of papers investigated) used technique for the estimation of asenapine maleate in formulations. On the other hand, for its quantification in the biological matrix, hyphenated techniques using mass spectrometry are widely used. This critical review reveals different analytical methodologies, including spectrophotometric, chromatographic, capillary electrophoresis techniques reported from 2011 to 2020, for the measurement of asenapine maleate in various sample matrices. The information presented in this review would be useful in future research for robust analytical method development for asenapine maleate utilizing a more scientific and risk-based approach. Also, it would aid to minimize analytical failure as well as method fine-tuning throughout the product life cycle. Further, this review may also direct scientists toward the development of methodologies for green research.