Simultaneous determination of nintedanib and its metabolite by UPLC–MS/MS in rat plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

Characterization of stress degradation products of nintedanib by UPLC, UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS/MS and NMR: Evidence of a degradation product with a structure alert for mutagenicity

Nintedanib is an anti-cancer drug used for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and non-small cell lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to explore its degradation chemistry under various stress conditions recommended in ICH guidelines Q1A R(2). The drug was subjected to hydrolytic, photolytic, thermal and oxidative (H₂O₂, AIBN, FeCl₃ and FeSO₄) stress conditions. The degradation products formed in stressed solutions were successfully separated on an ACQUITY UPLC CSH C18 (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) column, using a gradient UPLC-PDA method, developed with acetonitrile:methanol (90:10) and 0.1 % formic acid (pH 3.0) as the mobile phase. The drug proved to be labile to acidic, neutral and alkaline hydrolytic, and H₂O₂/AIBN oxidative conditions. It was stable to photolytic and thermal stress conditions, and even in oxidative reaction solutions containing FeCl₃ or FeSO₄. Additionally, the drug exhibited instability when its powder with added sodium bicarbonate was stored at 40 °C/75 % RH for 3 months. In total, nine degradation products (DPs 1-9) were formed. To characterize them, a comprehensive mass fragmentation pathway of the drug was first established using UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS/MS data. Similarly, the mass studies were then carried out on the stressed samples using the developed UPLC method. All the degradation products were primarily characterized through comparison of their mass fragmentation profiles with that of the drug. To confirm the structure in one case (DP 3), additional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies were carried out on the isolated product. Subsequently, mechanisms for their formation were laid down. A significant finding was the formation of a degradation product upon acid hydrolysis having a free aromatic amine moiety, which is considered as a structural alert for mutagenicity. Furthermore, the physicochemical and ADMET properties of the drug and its degradation products were predicted using ADMET predictor™ software.

To quantify the small-molecule kinase inhibitors ceritinib, dacomitinib, lorlatinib, and nintedanib in human plasma by liquid chromatography/triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry

Multiple small-molecule kinase inhibitors with specific molecular targets have recently been developed for the treatment of cancer. This article reports the development and validation of an ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method to simultaneously analyse the small-molecule kinase inhibitors dacomitinib, ceritinib, lorlatinib, and nintedanib in human plasma. For chromatographic analyte separation, an Acquity UPLC® BEH C18 column 1.7 μm, 50 mm x 2.1 mm was used with a binary gradient of pure water/formic acid/ammonium formate (100:0.1:0.02, v/v/v) and methanol/formic acid (100:0.1, v/v). Calibration curves for all small-molecule kinase inhibitors were 5.00-500 ng/mL. Validation of this method met all requirements of the Food and Drug administration. Additionally, clinical applicability was demonstrated by quantification of multiple samples from a pharmacokinetic study in patients with lung cancer.

Statistical optimization and validation of a novel ultra-performance liquid chromatography method for estimation of nintedanib in rat and human plasma

Aim: A high throughput ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-ultraviolet method for quantification of nintedanib in rat and human plasma was developed and optimized using chemometrical approach. Method: Design of experiment and multivariate statistical approach was used for definition of optimized method. Final separation was performed using protein precipitation method on ACQUITY HSS T3 C18 column in isocratic mode using potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.5): acetonitrile. Results: Method was validated as per US-FDA guidelines linearly from 15–750 ng/ml. All quality control samples showed <15% relative standard deviation for precision and 85–115% accuracy along with >98% extraction recovery. Conclusion: The developed method is easily applicable in determining pharmacokinetic parameters in preclinical subjects along with successful implementation for quantification in human plasma samples.

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-MS/MS (UHPLC-MS/MS) in practice: analysis of drugs and pharmaceutical formulations

Background

UHPLC-MS/MS is connected in various research facilities for the qualitative and quantitative investigation of a pharmaceutical substance, pharmaceutical items, and biological specimen.

Main body

The commence review article is an endeavor to offer pervasive awareness around assorted aspects and details about the UHPLC-MS/MS and related techniques with the aim on practice to an estimation of medicinal active agents in the last 10 years. The article also focused on isolation, separation, and characterization of present impurity in drug and biological samples.

Conclusion

Review article compiles a general overview of medicinally important drugs and their analysis with UHPLC-MS/MS. It gives fundamental thought regarding applications of UHPLC-MS/MS for the study on safety limit. The summary of developed UHPLC-MS/MS methods gives a contribution to the future trend and limitations in this area of research.

Recent Advances on Drug Analyses Using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatographic Techniques and their Application to the Biological Samples

Introduction:

Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatographic (UPLC) method enables analyst to establish an analysis at higher pressure than High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) method towards liquid chromatographic methods. UPLC method provides the opportunity to study a higher pressure compared to HPLC, and therefore smaller column in terms of particle size and internal diameter are generally used in drug analysis. The UPLC method has attracted gradually due to its advantages such as short analysis time, the small amount of waste reagents and the significant savings in the cost of their destruction process. In this review, the recent selected studies related to the UPLC method and its method validation are summarized. The drug analyses and the results of the studies which were investigated by UPLC method, with certain parameters from literature are presented.

Background:

Quantitative determination of drug active substances by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) from Liquid Chromatography (LC) methods has been carried out since the 1970's with the use of standard analytical LC methods. In today's conditions, rapid and very fast even ultra-fast, flow rates are achieved compared to conventional HPLC due to shortening analysis times, increasing method efficiency and resolution, reducing sample volume (and hence injection volume), reducing waste mobile phase. Using smaller particles, the speed and peak capacity are expanding to new limit and this technology is named as Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography. In recent years, as a general trend in liquid chromatography, ultra-performance liquid chromatography has taken the place of HPLC methods. The time of analysis was for several minutes, now with a total analysis time of around 1-2 minutes. The benefits of transferring HPLC to UPLC are much better understood when considering the thousands of analyzes performed for each active substance, in order to reduce the cost of analytical laboratories where relevant analysis of drug active substances are performed without lowering the cost of research and development activities.

Methods:

The German Chemist Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, proposed the use of reactive impregnated filter paper for the identification of dyestuffs in 1855 and at that time the first chromatographic method in which a liquid mobile phase was used, was reviewed. Christian Friedrich Chönbein, who reported that the substances were dragged at different speeds in the filter paper due to capillary effect, was followed by the Russian botanist Mikhail S. Tswet, who planted studies on color pigment in 1906. Tswet observes the color separations of many plant pigments, such as chlorophyll and xanthophyll when he passes the plant pigment extract isolated from plant through the powder CaCO3 that he filled in the glass column. This method based on color separation gives the name of "chromatographie" chromatography by using the words "chroma" meaning "Latin" and "graphein" meaning writing.

Results and Conclusion:

Because the UPLC method can be run smoothly at higher pressures than the HPLC method, it offers the possibility of analyzing using much smaller column sizes and column diameters. Moreover, UPLC method has advantages, such as short analysis time, the small amount of waste reagents and the significant savings in the cost of their destruction process. The use of the UPLC method especially analyses in biological samples such as human plasma, brain sample, rat plasma, etc. increasingly time-consuming due to the fact that the analysis time is very short compared to the HPLC, because of the small amount of waste analytes and the considerable savings in their cost.

A Sample and Sensitive HPLC-MS/MS Method for Simultaneous Determination of Ziyuglycoside I and Its Metabolite Ziyuglycoside II in Rat Pharmacokinetics

Ziyuglycoside I (ZGS1) is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of leucopenia. Currently, information on ZGS1 and its in vivo metabolite ziyuglycoside II (ZGS2) is limited. The objective of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution, and excretion of ziyuglycoside I (ZGS1) and its metabolite ziyuglycoside II (ZGS2) in rats. In our study, a simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was established for simultaneous determination of ZGS1 and its metabolite for Sprague-Dawley rat pharmacokinetics studies. The method was validated following internationally-approved guidelines. The results presented in this study indicated that subcutaneous administration of ZGS1 prolonged its extension time and increased the area under the curve (AUC_0-t) of ZGS2 during 0 to t minutes. In summary, in this study, the pharmacokinetic characteristics of ZGS1 and its metabolite ZGS2 were defined and its tissue distribution, and excretion in rats were described. Our finding may be beneficial for leucopenia drug that focus on ZGS1.