Nitrogen Mustards as Alkylating Agents: A Review on Chemistry, Mechanism of Action and Current USFDA Status of Drugs

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

Nitrogen mustard derivatives form one of the major classes of anti-cancer agents in USFDA approved drugs list. These are polyfunctional alkylating agents which are distinguished by a unique mechanism of adduct formation with DNA involving cross-linking between guanine N-7 of one strand of DNA with the other. The generated cross-linking is irreversible and leads to cell apoptosis. Hence it is of great interest to explore this class of anticancer alkylating agents.

METHODS

An exhaustive list of reviews, research articles, patents, books, patient information leaflets, and orange book is presented and the contents related to nitrogen mustard anti-cancer agents have been reviewed. Attempts are made to present synthesis schemes in a simplified manner. The mechanism of action of the drugs and their side effects are also systematically elaborated.

RESULTS

This review provides a platform for understanding all aspects of such drugs right from synthesis to their mechanism of action and side effects, and lists USFDA approved ANDA players among alkylating anticancer agents in the current market.

CONCLUSION

Perusing this article, generic scientists will be able to access literature information in this domain easily to gain insight into the nitrogen mustard alkylating agents for further ANDA development. It will help the scientific and research community to continue their pursuit for the design of newer and novel heterocyclic alkylating agents of this class in the coming future.

Determination of Bendamustine in Human Plasma and Urine by LC-FL Methods: Application in a Drug Monitoring

Simple and sensitive liquid chromatography (LC) methods with fluorescence (FL) detection for the determination of bendamustine (BM) in human plasma and urine were developed and validated. The procedure of BM extraction from a plasma sample involved solid-phase extraction with a C18 SPE column, while liquid–liquid extraction with dichloromethane was applied for a urine sample. In both methods, cinoxacin was used as the internal standard. Chromatographic separations were performed on a Synergi Max-RP column, while FL detector was set at the excitation wavelength of 328 nm and the emission wavelength of 420 nm. The LC-FL methods were validated for accuracy, precision, selectivity, linearity, recovery, and stability. The detection limits for BM were 0.5 and 2.5 ng mL⁻¹ in plasma and urine, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were less than 9.86 %, while the accuracies were higher than 92.63 and 94.29 % for BM in plasma and urine, respectively. The proposed LC-FL methods were sensitive, robust, and specific, allowing reliable drug quantification in plasma and urine samples. The methodologies were successfully applied to monitoring of BM in a child with cancer treated with BM.