An HPTLC densitometric method for simultaneous quantification of sorafenib tosylate and chrysin: Analytical method development, validation and applications

Robust high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method for stability assessment and simultaneous quantification of epigallocatechin-3-gallate and rosmarinic acid in lipid-based nanoparticles and biological matrices

INTRODUCTION

Skin cancer poses a significant health risk globally, necessitating effective and safe therapeutic interventions. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) from green tea and rosmarinic acid (RA) from herbs like rosemary offer promising anticancer properties. Combining these compounds may enhance their effectiveness, prompting the need for a reliable analytical method to quantify them.

OBJECTIVE

Herein, we present the development and validation of a high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method for concurrent quantification of EGCG and RA in lipid-based nanoparticles and biological samples.

METHODOLOGY

The method underwent optimisation through design of experiments (DoE), resulting in the establishment of robust chromatographic conditions. The separation process utilised aluminium HPTLC plates coated with silica gel 60 F254 as the stationary phase, with the mobile phase comprising ethyl acetate, toluene, formic acid, and methanol in a ratio of 4:4:1:1 v/v.

RESULTS

The retention factor (Rf) values obtained were 0.38 for EGCG and 0.61 for RA. The method demonstrated linearity over a range of 100-500 ng/band for both compounds with excellent correlation coefficients. Limits of detection and quantification were determined, indicating high sensitivity. Precision evaluations revealed relative standard deviation below 2%, ensuring method reproducibility. Recovery assays in lipid-based nanoparticles, plasma, and urine samples demonstrated excellent recoveries (96.2%-102.1%). Forced degradation studies revealed minimal degradation under various stress conditions, with photolytic degradation showing the least impact.

CONCLUSION

The developed HPTLC method offers a rapid, sensitive, and reliable approach for quantifying EGCG and RA, laying the groundwork for their further investigation as anticancer agents alone and in combination therapies.

Pretreatment and analysis techniques development of TKIs in biological samples for pharmacokinetic studies and therapeutic drug monitoring

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have emerged as the first-line small molecule drugs in many cancer therapies, exerting their effects by impeding aberrant cell growth and proliferation through the modulation of tyrosine kinase-mediated signaling pathways. However, there exists a substantial inter-individual variability in the concentrations of certain TKIs and their metabolites, which may render patients with compromised immune function susceptible to diverse infections despite receiving theoretically efficacious anticancer treatments, alongside other potential side effects or adverse reactions. Therefore, an urgent need exists for an up-to-date review concerning the biological matrices relevant to bioanalysis and the sampling methods, clinical pharmacokinetics, and therapeutic drug monitoring of different TKIs. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the advancements in pretreatment methods, such as protein precipitation (PPT), liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid-phase extraction (SPE), micro-SPE (μ-SPE), magnetic SPE (MSPE), and vortex-assisted dispersive SPE (VA-DSPE) achieved since 2017. It also highlights the latest analysis techniques such as newly developed high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) methods, capillary electrophoresis (CE), gas chromatography (GC), supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) procedures, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assays as well as novel nanoprobes-based biosensing techniques. In addition, a comparison is made between the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches while presenting critical challenges and prospects in pharmacokinetic studies and therapeutic drug monitoring.

Determination of Gemcitabine and Sorafenib in Spiked Human Plasma Using Multivariate Model Update Chemometric Methods

BACKGROUND

Gemcitabine (GEM), a pyrimidine nucleoside, has been used as a first-line treatment in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sorafenib (SOR), a nonselective multi-kinase inhibitor, is used as a chemotherapeutic agent in different types of cancers including NSCLC in preclinical studies. Co-administration of GEM and SOR was found to be effective and well-tolerated in the treatment of NSCLC.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the present work is to determine the studied drugs in spiked human plasma simultaneously through resolving the overlapping spectra and removing the interference of the plasma matrix.

METHOD

Two updated chemometric models were developed using UV absorbance of the drugs, which named principal component regression (PCR) and partial least-squares (PLS) for determination of GEM and SOR in the ranges of 5-25 and 2-22 µg/mL, respectively.

RESULTS

Validation of the two updated models has been achieved in accordance with US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, and the results were satisfactory. The two methods had the advantages of high predictive ability of the studied drugs with high precision and accuracy. Moreover, there was no significant difference obtained when statistical comparison was done between the developed and reported methods, showing good validity of the suggested methods.

CONCLUSIONS

The two updated models have the advantages of being rapid, accurate, sensitive, and cost-effective for the determination of GEM and SOR in quality control laboratories without any need for initial separation procedures.

HIGHLIGHTS

Two updated chemometric methods, PCR and PLS, were developed for the estimation of GEM and SOR in spiked human plasma using their UV absorbance data.

Designing an electrochemical sensor based on ZnO nanoparticle-supported molecularly imprinted polymer for ultra-sensitive and selective detection of sorafenib

BACKGROUND

Sorafenib (SOR) is a multikinase inhibitor anticancer drug that is used in treating non-small cell lung cancer. In this work, we focused on developing nanomaterial-supported smart porous interfaces by following the molecular imprinting approach for the selective determination of SOR. Determination-based studies in the literature for SOR are limited, and they are chromatographic techniques-based; hence, there is a need in the literature to elaborate the selective and sensitive analysis/monitoring of SOR in both biological and pharmaceutical samples with more studies.

RESULTS

The results showed that adding ZnO NPs enhanced the signal five times compared to the solo molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). Under the optimized conditions, ZnO/AMPS@MIP-GCE showed a linear response in the concentration range between 1.0 × 10-12 and 1.0 × 10-11 M with LOD and LOQ values of 2.25 × 10-13 M and 7.51 × 10-13 M, respectively, in the serum sample. The selectivity study was conducted against common cations, anions, and compounds such as dopamine, paracetamol, ascorbic acid, and uric acid. Also, the imprinting factor (IF) analysis was performed on selected drug substances having structural similarities to SOR and the relative IF values of regorafenib, leflunomide, teriflunomide, nilotinib, axitinib, and dasatinib indicated the selectivity of the developed sensor for SOR. Finally, ZnO/AMPS@MIP-GCE was implemented to determine SOR in the spiked commercial human serum samples and tablet dosage form with bias% between -0.43 and + 0.66.

SIGNIFICANCE AND NOVELTY

This study is the first electrochemical study for the determination of SOR, and thanks to the ZnO NPs supported MIP sensor, it stands out in terms of both high sensitivity and superior selectivity. Also, this designed sensor provides controlled orientation of the template and complete removal of templates in a one-step process, allowing extremely low detection and quantification limits.

FDA-Validated Ecofriendly Chromatographic Methods for Simultaneous Determination of Gemcitabine and Sorafenib: Applications to Pharmacokinetics

Combination therapy of gemcitabine and sorafenib is synergistically effective and well tolerated in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, the pharmacokinetic parameters of both gemcitabine and sorafenib were estimated after intra-peritoneal administration in rats using novel, green and sensitive RP-HPLC and TLC-densitometric methods where sildenafil used as an internal standard. Firstly, the developed RP-HPLC method achieved on ZORBAX Eclipse Plus C18 (4.6 mm × 150 mm, 5 μm) using a mixture of methanol: 40 mM ammonium acetate solution. On the other hand, the developed TLC-densitometric method was achieved on TLC plates using a developing system of methanol: ethyl acetate (3: 7, by volume) and scanning wave length at 260 nm. Additionally, the developed methods were validated according to FDA guidelines. Moreover, the developed methods were successfully used to study the pharmacokinetic parameters of both gemcitabine and sorafenib after administration of each drug alone and co-administration in rats. The results presented that drug–drug interaction between drugs happened when administrated together affecting the pharmacokinetic parameters of each other. The proposed methods, being ecofriendly, accurate, and sensitive, may become the corner stone for further clinical studies of the studied drugs determinations applied on humans.

Simple and efficient spectroscopic-based univariate sequential methods for simultaneous quantitative analysis of vandetanib, dasatinib, and sorafenib in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids

Six sequential spectrophotometric-based univariate methods were developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of three novel anticancer drugs vandetanib (VAN), dasatinib (DAS), and sorafenib (SOR) in a mixture, without the requirement for separation. These methods are novel, simple, precise, and accurate. Different steps including zero crossing, ratio-based, and/or derivative spectra were utilized to develop these analytical methods, namely, ratio difference spectrophotometric method, constant center method, successive derivative ratio method, isoabsorptive method, mean centering of the ratio spectra method, and derivative ratio spectrum-zero crossing method. The calibration curve linearity was ranged from 2 to 9, 2-9, and 3-9 μgmL^-1 for VAN, DAS, and SOR, respectively. These established methods were applied for the quantification of the three selected drugs in different biological fluids (spiked human plasma and urine) and pharmaceutical preparations. The aforementioned methods were established for the concurrent estimation of ternary and binary mixtures to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. The results did not statistically differ from the other reported methods, indicating no significant difference in accuracy and precision at p = 0.05.