Review of analytical and bioanalytical techniques for the determination of first-line anticytomegalovirus drugs

Abstract

• Cytomegalovirus (CMV) being a major threat and fatal in immunocompromised patient can be treated with valganciclovir and Ganciclovir. • Physicochemical properties, pharmacological properties, mechanism of action of Valganciclovir and Ganciclovir are compared and conferred with their benefits in treating CMV. • Key findings and applications of different techniques for the determination of Valganciclovir and Ganciclovir are critically discussed. • This critical discussion would aid future researchers on analysing Valganciclovir and Ganciclovir. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus which infects people of all ages. It causes serious illness like mononucleosis or hepatitis in immunocompromised patients. Ganciclovir had been the first drug of choice to treat cytomegalovirus infection. At present, Valganciclovir, the prodrug, is more predominantly used because of its higher oral bioavailability. Both the drugs act by inhibiting the replication of viral DNA. Commercially, ganciclovir is available in the form of capsules, suspensions, injections, nanoparticles and microspheres while valganciclovir is available as tablets and injections. This review provides an overview of physicochemical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of ganciclovir and valganciclovir and a detailed investigation on different analytical techniques used for detection and quantification of these drugs on various matrices. Various techniques like spectroscopy, chromatography, electrochemical methods and hyphenated techniques were reported to determine ganciclovir and valganciclovir, either alone or in combination with other drugs, in different kinds of matrices like in bulk, existing dosage forms and also biological samples like plasma, serum, urine and myocardial tissue. Among various techniques used, HPLC, LC-MS systems are more commonly used because of their high sensitivity. This article summarizes the research works carried out since 1985 and intents to act as a handbook for future researchers.