Determination of log P values of new cyclen based antimalarial drug leads using RP-HPLC.

Abstract

Lipophilicity, expressed by log P, is an important physicochemical property of drugs that affects many biological processes, including drug absorption and distribution. The main purpose of this study to determine the log P values of newly discovered drug leads using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The reference standards, with varying polarity ranges, were dissolved in methanol and analyzed by RP-HPLC using a C18 column. The mobile phase consisted of a mixture of acetonitrile, methanol and water in a gradient elution mode. A calibration curve was plotted between the experimental log P values and obtained log k values of the reference standard compounds and a best fit line was obtained. The log k values of the new drug leads were determined in the same solvent system and were used to calculate the respective log P values by using the best fit equation. The log P vs. log k data gave a best fit linear curve that had an R2 of 0.9786 with Pvalues of the intercept and slope of 1.19 x 10(-6) and 1.56 x 10(-10), respectively, at 0.05 level of significance. Log P values of 15 new drug leads and related compounds, all of which are derivatives of macrocyclic polyamines and their metal complexes, were determined. The values obtained are closely related to the calculated log P (Clog P) values using ChemDraw Ultra 12.0. This experiment provided efficient, fast and reasonable estimates of log P values of the new drug leads by using RP-HPLC.