Inhibiting efflux with novel non-ionic surfactants: Rational design based on vitamin E TPGS

Tocopheryl Polyethylene Glycol Succinate 1000 (TPGS 1000) can inhibit P-glycoprotein (P-gp); TPGS 1000 was not originally designed to inhibit an efflux pump. Recent work from our laboratories demonstrated that TPGS activity has a rational PEG chain length dependency. In other recent work, inhibition mechanism was investigated and appears to be specific to the ATPase providing P-gp energy. Based on these observations, we commenced rational surface-active design. The current work summarizes new materials tested in a validated Caco-2 cell monolayer model; rhodamine 123 (10 μM) was used as the P-gp substrate. These results demonstrate that one may logically construct non-ionic surfactants with enhanced propensity to inhibit in vitro efflux. One new surfactant based inhibitor, Tocopheryl Polypropylene Glycol Succinate 1000 (TPPG 1000), approached cyclosporine (CsA) in its in vitro efflux inhibitory potency. Subsequently, TPPG 1000 was tested for its ability to enhance the bioavailability of raloxifene – an established P-gp substrate – in fasted male rats. Animals dosed with raloxifene and TPPG 1000 experienced an increase in raloxifene oral bioavailability versus a control group which received no inhibitor. These preliminary results demonstrate that one may prepare TPGS analogs that possess enhanced inhibitory potency in vitro and in vivo.     

High performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric determination of rupatadine in human plasma and its pharmacokinetics

A simple, rapid, sensitive and selective liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of rupatadine in human plasma using estazolam as internal standard (IS). Following liquid-liquid extraction, the analytes were separated using a mobile phase of methanol-ammonium acetate (pH 2.2; 5mM) (50:50, v/v) on a reverse phase C18 column and analyzed by a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer in the positive ion and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, m/z 416-->309 for rupatadine and m/z 295-->267 for the IS. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 0.1-100 ng/ml for rupatadine in human plasma. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 0.1 ng/ml with a relative standard deviation of less than 20%. Acceptable precision and accuracy were obtained for concentrations over the standard curve range. The validated LC-MS/MS method has been successfully applied to study the pharmacokinetics of rupatadine in healthy volunteers.     

Simultaneous determination of phytoestrogens and key metabolites in breast cancer patients’ urine by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A novel, selective and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of phytoestrogens and their key metabolites in human urine in this study. This method includes internal standard (IS) screening, analytical sample preparation procedure establishment, and linear range investigation. The analytical sample was extracted by liquid–liquid extraction from urine sample. The phytoestrogens and related key metabolites were separated with Agilent Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C18 chromatographic column using methanol and water as mobile phase. The Quattro premier MICROMASS mass spectrometer in negative ion selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode using electrospray ionization was applied to detect the phytoestrogens and key metabolites. To validate the developed liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method, the intra- and inter-day precisions, specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and sample detective concentration range were evaluated. This is the first reported phytoestrogens analysis and validation study that demonstrates the feasibility of using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry to simultaneously analyze ten analytes including both phytoestrogens and their key metabolites in urine samples collected for epidemiological studies in human.     

Determination of ionophore coccidiostats in feedingstuffs by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry Part I. Application to targeted feed

A new and fit to purpose multi-analyte method for the determination of six coccidiostats (monensin A, salinomycin, narasin composed of its principal component narasin A and its minor component narasin I, lasalocid, semduramicin and maduramicin) in poultry and cattle compound feed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been developed and in-house validated. The concentration level of the target analytes at which the validation experiments have been carried out varied between 1 and 9 mg kg(-1). The method developed involved a simple extraction of the coccidiostats from the feed samples followed by a clean-up by solid-phase extraction prior to chromatographic analysis. The analytes were quantified either by matrix-matched standards or by the standard addition technique, obtaining the following performance profile of the method for the various analyte/matrix combinations. When quantifying against matrix-matched standards, the concentration independent intermediate precision expressed in terms of relative percentage standard deviation varied between 4 and 10% and the relative percentage recovery rates ranged from 86 to 120%, depending on the target analyte and matrix. When using the standard addition technique, the corresponding values for the intermediate precision varied between 2 and 8% and the relative percentage recovery rate ranged from 73 to 115%. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were different for the various analyte/matrix combinations but were in all cases below 0.014 and 0.046 mg kg(-1), respectively. Based on the obtained method performance characteristics, the method is considered suitable for the determination of ionophore coccidiostats in target feed. The main field of application of the validated method is to enforce European legislation regarding the authorisation of coccidiostats, focusing on the measurement at the authorised levels and at low level in feed during the withdrawal period at which the coccidiostats must not be added to the feed. Overall, the method proposed appears to be appropriate as a confirmatory method for the monitoring of these six ionophore coccidiostats and can therefore be considered as complementary to the official HPLC-UV methods.     

Separation, identification and quantification of tetrodotoxin and its analogs by LC–MS without calibration of individual analogs

We report here a simple and rapid method of separation, identification and quantification of tetrodotoxin (TTX) and its analogs in partially purified extract by LC-MS. Except for the main component calibration of individual components was not necessary. TTX and four of its analogs in the puffer fish extract were identified and quantified. The limits of detection and quantification, the linear range and accuracy of the protocol were validated.     

GC-MS/MS测定宽胸气雾剂中12种指标成分

目的: 建立气相色谱-三重四极杆质谱(GC-MS/MS)同时测定宽胸气雾剂中桉油精、龙脑、甲基丁香酚、异龙脑、α-红没药醇、榄香素、反式橙花叔醇、石竹烯、α-葎草烯、β-蒎稀、α-蒎稀、左旋樟脑等12种指标性成分方法。方法: 采用内标法,样品经乙醇稀释,GC-MS/MS测定,程序升温,MRM模式检测;并使用热图聚类和主成分分析法对数据进行统计分析。结果: 12种指标成分分别在1~10 ng·mL^-1和50~1 000 ng·mL^-1两个量级内呈线性;回收率为97.5%~104.8%,RSD为1.14%~2.89%(n=3);8批样品中上述成分含量分别为22.24~26.79,22.22~26.88,20.74~22.99,13.72~16.78,10.25~11.23,5.25~5.81,4.60~4.78,2.63~3.06,2.18~2.47,1.92~2.18,1.55~1.94,1.02~1.07 mg·mL^-1;热图聚类分析结果表明同一企业不同批次样品整体质量一致性较好。结论: 该方法专属性强、灵敏度高、测定方法简便结果准确,可为宽胸气雾剂的质量控制提供检验依据。     

A novel GC-MS method for rapid determination of headspace oxygen in vials of pharmaceutical formulations

A novel GC-MS method which requires small injection volumes was developed for fast and selective determination of headspace oxygen in pharmaceutical packages. This method does not require a specific GC column for separation of oxygen from other permanent gases such as nitrogen; instead it offers the advantage of using co-eluting nitrogen as the internal standard for quantifying oxygen in the headspace under electron ionization (EI, 70eV) conditions. The relative ionization efficiency of oxygen to nitrogen, termed as ionization efficiency correction factor (IECF), can be measured using a control sample with known composition of oxygen and nitrogen such as the standard dry air used in this study. To avoid contamination, it is necessary to flush the syringe with pure helium. The measurements by the method are independent of the variations of sampling volumes. The determined headspace oxygen contents (R.S.D.<1%) in the containers of an investigational intravenous formulation using this method are consistent with the results obtained by an oxygen instrument at the manufacturing facility. The performance of the analytical approach was evaluated in the study of the container closure integrity at various storage conditions including upright and inverted orientations. The results suggest that there is no obvious oxygen penetration over 12 months. This method provides a convenient tool for measuring the levels of HS oxygen in vials of pharmaceutical formulations.