Partition Coefficient Measurements in Picoliter Drops Using a Segmented Flow Microfluidic Device

Continuous and automated slug flow nanoextraction for rapid partition coefficient measurement

Octanol-water partition coefficients (log Kow) are widely used in pharmaceutical and environmental chemistry to assess the lipophilicity of compounds. Traditionally log Kow is determined using a shake-flask method that uses milliliters of sample and solvent and requires hours for preparation, extraction, and analysis. Here, we report an automated system for rapid log Kow determination for an array of compounds using slug flow nanoextraction (SFNE) enabled by a microfluidic chip. In the method, an autosampler is used to introduce 1 μL of sample into a microfluidic device that segments the injected volume into a series of 4 nL slugs that are each paired to an adjacent octanol slug. Each octanol-water phase pair is compartmentalized by an immiscible fluorous carrier fluid. During flow, rapid extraction occurs at each octanol-water interface. The resulting linear array of slugs flows into an online UV absorbance detector that is used to determine concentrations in the phases, allowing the log Kow to be measured. The microfluidic device allows toggling between two-phase "aqueous plug" generation (aqueous sample separated by fluorous carrier fluid) and three-phase "phase pair" generation. In this way, online calibration for detection in the aqueous phase can be achieved. The method is applied to determining log Kow for a panel of seven pharmaceutical compounds, including complete calibration curves, at three different pHs in under 2 h using 5 μL of extraction standard and 2.9 μL of octanol per extraction standard analyzed.

Quantitative structure-property relationship of distribution coefficients of organic compounds

The n-octanol/buffer solution distribution coefficient (or n-octanol/water partition coefficient) is of critical importance for measuring lipophilicity of drug candidates. After 4885 molecular descriptor generation, 15 molecular descriptors were selected to develop quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) models for distribution coefficients at pH 7.4 (log D _7.4) of a large data set consisting of 1043 organic compounds, which was divided into a training set (600 compounds) and a test set (443 compounds). Support vector machine (SVM) based on genetic algorithm was used to develop a model for log D _7.4 that has coefficient of determination r ² of 0.919 for the training set and 0.893 for the test set. The results suggest that the SVM model is accurate in predicting log D _7.4.

Countercurrent liquid-liquid extraction on paper

Proof-of-concept is shown for two-phase countercurrent flow on paper. The device consists of two paper layers, one of which has been modified with a sizing agent to be hydrophobic. The layers exhibit different wetting behavior for water and octanol. Both phases dominate wetting in one of the layers and can be made to move in different directions along the interface to achieve liquid-liquid extraction.

Zone fluidics for measurement of octanol-water partition coefficient of drugs

A novel zone fluidics (ZF) system for the determination of the octanol-water partition coefficient (Pow) of drugs was developed. The ZF system consisted of a syringe pump with a selection valve, a holding column, a silica capillary flow-cell and an in-line spectrophotometer. Exact microliter volumes of solvents (octanol and phosphate buffer saline) and a solution of the drug, sandwiched between air segments, were sequentially loaded into the vertically aligned holding column. Distribution of the drug between the aqueous and octanol phases occurred by the oscillation movement of the syringe pump piston. Phase separation occurred due to the difference in densities. The liquid zones were then pushed into the detection flow cell. In this method, absorbance measurements in only one of the phase (octanol or aqueous) were employed, which together with the volumes of the solvents and pure drug sample, allowed the calculation of the Pow. The developed system was applied to the determination of the Pow of some common drugs. The log (Pow) values agreed well with a batch method (R(2)=0.999) and literature (R(2)=0.997). Standard deviations for intra- and inter-day analyses were both less than 0.1log unit. This ZF system provides a robust and automated method for screening of Pow values in the drug discovery process.

Chemical communication between liposomes encapsulating a chemical oscillatory reaction

Electrochemical measurements and numerical simulations are employed to understand the chemical communication between liposomes prepared in microfluidics and encapsulating a chemical oscillator.

Visualizing millisecond chaotic mixing dynamics in microdroplets: A direct comparison of experiment and simulation

In order to fully explore and utilize the advantages of droplet-based microfluidics, fast, sensitive, and quantitative measurements are indispensable for the diagnosis of biochemical reactions in microdroplets. Here, we report an optical detection technique using two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, with an aligning-summing and non-fitting division method, to depict two-dimensional (2D) maps of mixing dynamics by chaotic advection in microdroplets with high temporal and spatial resolution. The mixing patterns of two dye solutions inside droplets were quantitatively and accurately measured. The mixing efficiency in a serpentine droplet mixer was also quantified and compared with the simulation data. The mapped chaotic mixing dynamics agree well with the numerical simulation and theoretical prediction. This quantitative characterization is potentially applicable to the real-time kinetic study of biological and chemical reactions in droplet-based microfluidic systems.

A practical deuterium-free NMR method for the rapid determination of 1-octanol/water partition coefficients of pharmaceutical agents

A simple and rapid NMR method is described to determine the logP of pharmaceutical agents. This method is highly versatile and efficient, because it does not require the use of deuterated solvents or the addition of any internal/external standards to the sample. We demonstrate that logP can be accurately measured using NMR for pharmaceutical agents with known logP values. Our proposed method is made possible by the combination of state-of-the-art NMR techniques including the solvent concentration reference and robust solvent suppressions.