Quantitative estimation of cilnidipine and valsartan in rat plasma by RP-HPLC: its pharmacokinetic application

Response surface methodology combined Box-Behnken design optimized green kinetic spectrophotometric and HPLC methods to quantify angiotensin receptor blocker valsartan in pharmaceutical formulations

The high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) and kinetic spectrophotometric methods were established to compute valsartan (VAL) in pharmaceutical formulations. The spectrophotometric procedures adopted initial rate, fixed time, and equilibrium strategies to assess VAL. The method was based on the carboxylic acid group of the oxidized VAL with a mixture of potassium iodate (KIO₃) and potassium iodide (KI) at room temperature, producing a stable, yellow-coloured absorb at 352 nm. The critical parameters were optimized using green process optimization methodology such as Box-Behnken design (BBD) which belongs to response surface methodology (RSM). After the screening, experiments identified them as significant, and then three crucial factors were optimised: KI volume, KIO₃ volume, and reaction time against response as absorbance. The HPLC procedure was also optimized based on the desirability function on RSM-BBD. The parameters such as pH, methanol (%), and flow rate (ml/min) were optimized with the best responses: peak area, symmetry, and theoretical plates. The linearity of spectrophotometric and HPLC methods was within the range of 2-24 and 0.25-11.25 µg/ml, respectively. The developed procedures produced excellent accuracy and precision. The design of the experiment (DoE) setting explained and discussed the individual steps and the importance of independent and dependent variables used to develop the model and optimization. The method was validated as per the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. Furthermore, Youden's robustness study was applied with factorial combinations of the preferred analytical parameters and explored their influence with alternative conditions. The analytical Eco-Scale score was calculated and was found a better option as green methods to quantify VAL. The results were reproducible with the analysis completed with biological fluid and wastewater samples.

Effects of Valsartan on LN, FN, MDA, Renal Tissue Fibrosis, and Inflammatory Infiltration in DN Rats

The effects of valsartan on laminin (LN), fibronectin (FN), malondialdehyde (MDA), renal tissue fibrosis, and inflammatory infiltration in diabetic nephropathy (DN) rats are explored. A total of 42 SPF male Sprague D (SD) rats are selected and randomly divided into normal set, model set, valsartan low-dose and high-dose sets, and metformin set with 7 rats in each set. The kidney tissue of all rats is collected after administration. The standard of protein mRNA in kidney tissues is detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, and the protein standard in kidney tissues is detected by western blot. The experimental results show that the application of valsartan to DN rats can effectively relieve the morphology of the rat kidney tissue, enhance the protein expression in the kidney tissue of the DN rats, and reduce the fibrosis and inflammatory infiltration of the kidney tissue.

Validation of the HPLC–PDA method for detection of eluxadoline and rifaximin in rat plasma and application in a pharmacokinetic study

Background

A precise, simple, accurate, and quick HPLC–PDA method for the determination of eluxadoline and rifaximin in rat plasma was developed and validated in this study. In this method, Loperamide hydrochloride was used as the internal standard and plasma samples were prepared using a liquid–liquid extraction technique for which acetonitrile was a solvent. An Agilent Symmetry C8 column (5 µm, 250 mm × 4.6 mm) at 283 nm and isocratic elution using HPLC grade acetonitrile and 7 mM TEA (pH 2.5) with a ratio of (40: 60 v/v) was used as a mobile phase and the flow rate employed was 1 mL min−1. A satisfactory chromatographic separation was accomplished.

Results

An HPLC–PDA method for the determination of eluxadoline and rifaximin with retention times of 3.06 and 7.82 min, respectively, was developed. The calibration curves appear linear for both eluxadoline and rifaximin in the range of 5–200 ng mL−1 and 10–400 ng mL−1, and the corresponding correlation coefficient values were found to be 0.9999 and 0.9998 respectively. Lower limits of quantification (LLOQ) for eluxadoline and rifaximin were evaluated to be 5.0 ng mL−1 and 10.0 ng mL−1, respectively. The accuracy and precision results in all validation experiments were within the acceptance limits of FDA guidelines.

Conclusion

The developed HPLC–PDA approach was fully validated to meet the USFDA guidelines for bioanalytical method validation in terms of precision, accuracy, and stability. The presented approach could be beneficial for the determination of ELX and RFX in rat plasma, according to validation parameters. This is one of the efficient method to study the pharmacokinetics of ELX and RFX in rats.

Graphical abstract