Cinchona Alkaloid-based Chiral Stationary Phases Research Articles

Atypical enantioseparation of a non-ionic form of allantoin with Cinchona alkaloid-based zwitterionic chiral stationary phases

Allantoin represents a compound widely employed in pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields. Its safety has been acknowledged by regulatory bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Commission for Cosmetics and Consumer and Health and European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare. This justifies its wide use in dermatological/cosmetic formulations and allows their safe use.Allantoin possesses an asymmetric carbon atom, resulting in two enantiomers, with the (S)-enantiomer predominating in plants, although racemization may potentially occur during manufacturing processes. Notably, literature currently lacks enantioselective LC methods for allantoin analysis.In this study, two zwitterionic Cinchona alkaloid-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs), commercially known as CHIRALPAK® ZWIX(+) (CSP1) and CHIRALPAK® ZWIX(-) (CSP2), were utilized for the enantioseparation of allantoin under polar-ionic conditions. By employing a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile/methanol/water/acetic acid (96:2:2:0.1, v/v/v/v), nearly complete baseline separation (with α=1.08) of allantoin enantiomers was achieved in less than 15 min with both CSPs. Due to the “pseudo-enantiomeric” nature of the two chiral selectors (quinine-based in CSP1 and quinidine-based in CSP2), an inversion of the enantiomer elution order was observed with the two CSPs under identical experimental conditions. Remarkably, this represents a rare instance where these CSPs demonstrate the ability to enantioseparate a non-ionic, non-ionizable species.The application of a molecular dynamics in silico protocol proved useful in elucidating the retention mechanism in depth, casting light on the central role of the H-bond formation and the involvement of the anionic moiety of the CSP 1.

A journey in unraveling the enantiorecognition mechanism of 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl-amino acids with two Cinchona alkaloid-based chiral stationary phases: The power of molecular dynamic simulations

BackgroundInnovations in computer hardware and software capabilities have paved the way for advances in molecular modelling techniques and methods, leading to an unprecedented expansion of their potential applications. In contrast to the docking technique, which usually identifies the most stable selector-selectand (SO-SA) complex for each enantiomer, the molecular dynamics (MD) technique enables the consideration of a distribution of the SO-SA complexes based on their energy profile. This approach provides a more truthful representation of the processes occurring within the column. However, benchmark procedures and focused guidelines for computational treatment of enantioselectivity at the molecular level are still missing. ResultsTwenty-eight molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the enantiorecognition mechanisms of seven N-3,5-dinitrobenzoylated α- and β-amino acids (DNB-AAs), occurring with the two quinine- and quinidine-based (QN-AX and QD-AX) chiral stationary phases (CSPs), under polar-ionic conditions. The MD protocol was optimized in terms of box size, simulation run time, and frame recording frequency. Subsequently, all the trajectories were analyzed by calculating both the type and amount of the interactions engaged by the selectands (SAs) with the two chiral selectors (SOs), as well as the conformational and interaction energy profiles of the formed SA-SO associates. All the MDs were in strict agreement with the experimental enantiomeric elution order and allowed to establish (i) that salt-bridge and H-bond interactions play a pivotal role in the enantiorecognition mechanisms, and (ii) that the π-cation and π-π interactions are the discriminant chemical features between the two SOs in ruling the chiral recognition mechanism. SignificanceThe results of this work clearly demonstrate the high contribution given by MD simulations in the comprehension of the enantiorecognition mechanism with Cinchona alkaloid-based CSPs. However, from this research endeavor it clearly emerged that the MD protocol optimization is crucial for the quality of the produced results.

Dedicated comparisons of diverse polysaccharide- and zwitterionic Cinchona alkaloid-based chiral stationary phases probed with basic and ampholytic indole analogs in liquid and subcritical fluid chromatography mode

Normal phase (NP) high-performance liquid and sub- and supercritical fluid chromatographic (both acronymed as SFC) methods have been developed for the enantiomer separation of three basic and three ampholytic structurally related C-3-substituted indole analogs on seven non-ionic (neutral) polysaccharide-based and two chemically entirely different zwitterionic Cinchona alkaloid- and sulfonic acid-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs). In a systematic fashion the effect of the composition of the mobile phase, the nature of the alcohol and amine additives on the retention characteristics and enantioselectivity of the ionizable analytes were investigated. On all studied polysaccharide-based CSPs the three ampholytes remained unretained in NP-LC mode, while they were nicely retained and resolved in SFC mode. These unexpected results underline a specific property of liquid CO2 as bulk solvent in combination with alcohols as co-solvents and amine additives thus creating an environment around the chiral selector sites which support the retention of ampholytes. The zwitterionic CSPs worked equally well for the resolution of the basic and ampholytic analytes using a polar ionic mobile phase in both LC and SFC modes.Results acquired by studying the effect of temperature were used to calculate the changes in standard enthalpy Δ(ΔH°), entropy Δ(ΔS°), and free energy Δ(ΔG°) applying van't Hoff plots. The values of the thermodynamic parameters depended on the nature of selectors, the structure of analytes and the properties of the mobile phases. On polysaccharide-based CSPs and columns operated in NP-LC mode enthalpically-, whereas in SFC mode both enthalpically- and entropically-driven enantiomer separations were observed.

Improved chromatographic diastereoresolution of cyclopropyl dafachronic acid derivatives using chiral anion exchangers

In the present paper we describe the optimization and the application of a chromatographic method suitable to get all four diastereoisomers of C24–C25 cyclopropyl dafachronic acid derivatives in sufficient amount for their biological appraisal towards the nuclear hormone receptor transcription factor DAF-12. A preliminary column screening of six anion exchange type Cinchona alkaloid-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs) allowed to identify the one with a quinine scaffold and carrying a O-9-(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl) moiety at C9 position as the best CSP. Few modifications of the experimental conditions revealed that a content of 18mM acetic acid used as counterion and displacer in acetonitrile and a column temperature fixed at 35°C were optimal for the simultaneous discrimination of all four diastereoisomers with a 1.0mL/min flow rate. With such conditions, transoid (S,S) and (R,R) diastereoisomers were resolved with RS>1.4. With non chiral reversed-phase columns, neither the cisoid nor the transoid diastereoisomers could be resolved. This way, ca. 1.0mg of each stereoisomer was isolated with a diastereomeric purity >98%, suitable for the following biological tests. The indirect stereochemical assignments of the four diastereoisomers, and hence the corresponding chromatographic elution order (24R,25R)<(24S,25S)<(24R,25S)<(24S,25R) were made in an analogy manner on the basis of the resolution of fully assigned and structurally very similar ursodeoxycholic acid derivatives. As support of this indirect way of assigning the absolute configuration of the C24 and C25 chiral centre a molecular modeling procedure based on dynamic simulation was successfully applied.

Increments to chiral recognition facilitating enantiomer separations of chiral acids, bases, and ampholytes using Cinchona‐based zwitterion exchanger chiral stationary phases

The intramolecular distances of anion and cation exchanger sites of zwitterionic chiral stationary phases represent potential tuning sites for enantiomer selectivity. In this contribution, we investigate the influence of alkanesulfonic acid chain length and flexibility on enantiomer separations of chiral acids, bases, and amphoteric molecules for six Cinchona alkaloid-based chiral stationary phases in comparison with structurally related anion and cation exchangers. Employing polar-organic elution conditions, we observed an intramolecular counterion effect for acidic analytes which led to reduced retention times but did not impair enantiomer selectivities. Retention of amphoteric analytes is based on simultaneous double ion pairing of their charged functional groups with the acidic and basic sites of the zwitterionic selectors. A chiral center in the vicinity of the strong cation exchanger site is vital for chiral separations of bases. Sterically demanding side chains are beneficial for separations of free amino acids. Enantioseparations of free (un-derivatized) peptides were particularly successful in stationary phases with straight-chain alkanesulfonic acid sites, pointing to a beneficial influence of more flexible moieties. In addition, we observed pseudo-enantiomeric behavior of quinine and quinidine-derived chiral stationary phases facilitating reversal of elution orders for all analytes.

Structure‐enantioselectivity relationships for the study of chiral recognition in peptide enantiomer separation on cinchona alkaloid‐based chiral stationary phases by HPLC: Influence of the N‐terminal protecting group

AbstractEleven different N‐terminal protecting groups (acetyl, benzoyl, FMOC, etc.) were employed for the HPLC separation of oligoalanine peptide enantiomers containing up to six amino acids. Isocratic HPLC separations were performed using a hydro‐organic buffered mobile phase and 4 mm ID columns containing three different chiral anion exchange stationary phases based on cinchona alkaloid‐derived chiral selectors. For most peptides successful separations could be obtained with all protecting groups, although those comprising aromatic moieties were found to yield higher enantioselectivities than those with aliphatic residues, since they are capable of undergoing favourable π‐π interactions with the selector. Systematic investigations concerning the presence or absence of structural features of related protecting groups showed that the use of protecting groups that are optimally adjusted to the binding pocket of the chiral selector effects a significant gain in enantioselectivity. At the same time these studies provided new insights into the chiral recognition mechanism.