Role of succinate in airway epithelial cell regulation following traumatic lung injury

Lung contusion and gastric aspiration (LC and GA) are major risk factors for developing acute respiratory distress following trauma. Hypoxia from lung injury is mainly regulated by hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α). Published data from our group indicate that HIF-1α regulation in airway epithelial cells (AEC) drives the acute inflammatory response following LC and GA. Metabolomic profiling and metabolic flux of Type II AEC following LC revealed marked increases in glycolytic and TCA intermediates in vivo and in vitro that were HIF-1α dependent. GLUT-1/4 expression was also increased in HIF-1α+/+ mice, suggesting that increased glucose entry may contribute to increased intermediates. Importantly, lactate incubation in vitro on Type II cells did not significantly increase the inflammatory byproduct IL-1β. Contrastingly, succinate had a direct proinflammatory effect on human small AEC by IL-1β generation in vitro. This effect was reversed by dimethylmalonate, suggesting an important role for succinate dehydrogenase in mediating HIF-1α effects. We confirmed the presence of the only known receptor for succinate binding, SUCNR1, on Type II AEC. These results support the hypothesis that succinate drives HIF-1α-mediated airway inflammation following LC. This is the first report to our knowledge of direct proinflammatory activation of succinate in nonimmune cells such as Type II AEC in direct lung injury models.

New enantioselective liquid chromatography method development and validation of dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors using a macrocyclic glycopeptide (vancomycin) chiral stationary phase under polar ionic mode condition

The direct separation of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-4) inhibitors such as Sitagliptin (STG), Linagliptin (LIG), and Saxagliptin (SAG) enantiomers in normal phase conditions have been achieved on immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs), as well as on the macrocyclic glycopeptide vancomycin chiral stationary phase (Chirobiotic V2) under polar ionic mode. The enantiomers of these targets could be separated completely (resolution factor Rs > 2) using the Chirobiotic V2 column in polar ionic mode with the mobile phase (MeOH/AcOH/TEA 100/0.3/0.1 v/v/v) in an isocratic elution at 1.0 ml min^-1 . The effect of the mobile phase composition on separation, including buffer salts, acid-base modifiers, and analyte structures, was evaluated. The developed technique was validated in the polar ionic mode according to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Q2R1 guidelines in terms of accuracy, precision, selectivity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ). The calibration curve was linear in a concentration range from LOQ to 3.75 μg/ml. The LOD and LOQ of STG, LIG, and SAG were 0.15 and 0.45, 0.15 and 0.50, 0.16 and 0.50, respectively. The proposed method is said to be selective, accurate, and precise. Finally, the validated method was used successfully for the quantitative determination of DPP-4 enantiomers in pharmaceutical analytes.

Dried blood spot analysis of (+) and (-) darunavir enantiomers on immobilized amylose tris-(3, 5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) LC and its application to pharmacokinetics

Dried blood spot analysis is an innovative novel blood sampling technique gaining interest in drug discovery and development processes owing to its inherent advantages over the conventional whole blood, plasma or serum sample collection. The present manuscript describes the development and validation of a highly sensitive and precise method of evaluation of pharmacokinetics of (+) and (-) darunavir enantiomers on rat dried blood spots. The enantiomers on rat dried blood spots were extracted into methanol and separated by LC on a Chiralpak IA column using hexane and ethanol containing 0.1% DEA (75:25, v/v) as a mobile phase at 20°C; both the enantiomers were detected at 266 nm using a photodiode array detector. The method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision and stability as per the US Food and Drug and Administration guidelines. The hematocrit effect on extraction recovery was evaluated and the mean recoveries of (-) and (+) enantiomers of darunavir from dried blood spots were found to be 85.76 and 88.91% respectively. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were 3.1-8.4 and 0.8-4.8% respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of (+) and (-) enantiomers of darunavir on rat dried blood spots.

Development of a Validated LC Method for Separation of Process-Related Impurities Including the R-Enantiomer of S-Pramipexole on Polysaccharide Chiral Stationary Phases

Despite the availability of a few methods for individual separation of S-pramipexole from its process-related impurities, no common liquid chromatography (LC) method is reported so far in the literature. The present article describes the development of a single-run LC method for simultaneous determination of S-pramipexole and its enantiomeric and process-related impurities on a Chiralpak AD-H (150 x 4.6 mm, 5μm) column using n-hexane/ethanol/n-butylamine (75:25:0.1 v/v/v) as a mobile phase in an isocratic mode of elution at a flow rate of 1.2 ml/min at 30°C. The chromatographic eluents were monitored at a wavelength of 260 nm using a photodiode array detector. Excellent enantioseparation with good resolutions (Rs ≥ 2.88) and peak shapes (As ≤ 1.21) for all analytes was achieved. The proposed method was validated according to International Conference Harmonization (ICH) guidelines in terms of accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and linearity. Limits of quantification of impurities (0.25-0.55 μg/ml) indicate the highest sensitivity achievable by the proposed method. The method has an advantage of selectivity and suitability for routine determination of not only chiral impurity but also all possible related substances in active pharmaceutical ingredients of S-pramipexole.