Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography Column Research Articles

Quantification of Remimazolam Besylate (CNS7056B) and Its Metabolite (CNS7054X) by LC-MS/MS in Human Plasma Using Midazolam-d4 Maleate as Internal Standard.

A new assay was developed to measure the concentration of remimazolam besylate (CNS7056B) and its major carboxylic acid metabolite (CNS7054X) in human plasma. For this new assay method, midazolam-d4 maleate was used as an internal standard. After setting up a previously described assay method, using CNS7056-d4 and CNS7054-d4 as internal standards, analytical results of both methods were compared. For the new analytical method, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) with tandem mass spectrometry was applied. A purification method, using solid phase extraction, was developed and validated. The chromatographic separation of the analytes was achieved with a mobile phase gradient using a Water Acquity™ UHPLC-System. The Kinetex™ biphenyl 50 × 2.1mm UHPLC column was used with a particle diameter of 1.7μm (Phenomenex, Germany). A measuring range of 0.6-2,000ng/mL for CNS7056B and of 6-20,000ng/mL for CNS7054X could be achieved with this new assay. The lower limit of quantification was 0.6ng/mL for CNS7056B and 6ng/mL for CNS7054X. The assay was validated according to US Food and Drug Administration guidelines. The new method showed an accuracy of 96.9-110.4% and a precision of 2.1-6.7% for both analytes.

A Validated Method for Separation and Determination of Codeine Phosphate Hemihydrate Impurities in Bilayer Tablet Dosage Form of Naproxen Sodium and Codeine Phosphate by Using UHPLC

Background: Apranax Plus® is a new bilayer tablet dosage form, which combines two active pharmaceutical ingredients: naproxen sodium and codeine phosphate. Objective: The purpose of this work was to develop an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method for the separation and determination of codeine phosphate hemihydrate impurities in a bilayer tablet dosage form. Methods: The separation and determination of codeine phosphate hemihydrate and its impurities, methylcodeine, morphine, codeine dimer, 10-hydroxycodeine, 14-hydroxycodeine, thebaine and codeinone were achieved by using reversed-phase liquid chromatography with TUV (Tunable UV Detector) and PDA (Photodiode Array Detector) detection by UHPLC. The new proposed method utilized by the Waters Acquity UHPLC® TUV and PDA systems using a UHPLC column Waters Acquity, BEH, C18, 2.1x100 mm, 1.7 μm particle size with a mixture of component A and acetonitrile in a gradient mode at a flow rate of 0.3mL/min, at 25°C with a load of 5μL. The detection for all eluted compounds was carried out at 245nm. Results: The codeine phosphate hemihydrate and peaks of its impurities were adequately obtained, thus proving the stability-indicating power of the method. The developed method was validated as per the ICH guidelines with respect to parameters such as precision, accuracy, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ) and robustness. Conclusion: It was verified as being adequate for all the mentioned impurities of codeine phosphate hemihydrate. The described method was found to be useful for routine purity testing and was also found suitable for the analysis of the stability samples of the drug product.

Nanodiamond for Sample Preparation in Proteomics

Protein analysis of potential disease markers in blood is complicated by the fact that proteins in plasma show very different abundances. As a result, high-abundance proteins dominate the analysis, which often render the analysis of low-abundance proteins impossible. Depleting high-abundance proteins is one strategy to solve this problem. Here, we present, for the first time, a very simple approach based on selective binding of serum proteins to the surface of nanodiamonds. In our first proof-of-principle experiments, we were able to detect, on average, eight proteins that are present at a concentration of 1 ng/mL (instead of 0.5 ng/mL in the control without sample preparation). Remarkably, we detect proteins down to a concentration of 400 pg/mL after only one simple depletion step. Among the proteins we could analyze are also numerous disease biomarkers, including markers for multiple cancer forms, cardiovascular diseases, or Alzheimer’s disease. Remarkably, many of the biomarkers we find also could not be detected with a state-of-the-art ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography column (which depletes the 64 most-abundant serum proteins).

Selective drug metabolite trace analysis by very high-volume injections and heartcut two-dimensional (2D)-ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)

The application of two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) is gradually growing also in the area of metabolite profiling and identification. The current contribution describes a heartcut 2D-UHPLC configuration that is applied in support of drug metabolism studies in development. The setup applies four LC columns: two analytical UHPLC columns to perform the first and second dimension separations, which are both preceded by a short HPLC column operated as trapping column. The first HPLC column allows a significant online preconcentration by large volume injection. The second short HPLC column is placed between the first and second dimension columns and enables the selection of orthogonal conditions in the second dimension independent of the first dimension making the heartcutting 2D approach more generic.The value of the setup was demonstrated with selective ultraviolet chromatograms obtained for the two major hydroxylated metabolites of atorvastatin separating them from a very high biological background, originating from an injection of 4 mL feces extract, by heartcut 2D-LC. In a second application, the main metabolite of imipramine was baseline separated from some minor metabolites that were co-eluting in the first dimension, allowing accurate and sensitive quantification. A quantification limit in the attogram/mL range was achieved thanks to the injection of 200 mL diluted urine, corresponding to 100 mL urine on column.

Development of a Fast and Facile Analytical Approach to Quantify Radiometabolites in Human Plasma Samples Using Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Introduction: Conventional metabolite analyses often require manual sample preparation, generating variability of measurements. This study describes a new method to quantify radiometabolites in blood, combining ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and turbulent flow chromatography, an alternative fully automated process allowing analyte’s extraction. Methods: A new radiotracer for dopamine transporter imaging, namely LBT-999, was used to demonstrate the method’s robustness. Matrix effect, Turboflow column loading, linearity, specificity and precision were evaluated with in vitro samples of LBT-999 in human plasma. Radiodetector sensitivity and preliminary evaluation were respectively determined by analysis of calibrated samples of [18F]LBT-999 and blood samples from 4 healthy subjects injected with [18F]LBT-999, withdrawn at 5, 15, 30 and 45 min pi. Results: With three sequential loadings (3 × 100 μL) of the Turboflow column, mean coefficients of variation were 1%, below 2%, 2% and 30.9% for matrix effect, specificity, repeatability and intermediate precision, respectively. Correlation coefficients for linearity were superior to 0.97. Limits of detection and quantification of the radiodetector were fixed at 3 and 9 c/s. Retention times for [18F]LBT-999 and the two radiometabolites detected by radio-UHPLC were 6.5, 4.8 and 9.6 min. Forty-five min after the injection, parent fraction was still predominant with 57.8% ± 25% of the total radioactivity. Conclusions: An innovative approach, allying UHPLC and Turboflow column, was developed and its sensitivity, linearity, specificity and repeatability validated. Preliminary results of the clinical trial are in accordance with literature data, demonstrating its efficiency in radiometabolites quantification.

Development and validation of an ultrafast chromatographic method for quantification of the immunosuppressant mycophenolic acid in canine, feline and human plasma

Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is the active metabolite of the prodrug mycophenolate mofetil. In this study, we developed and validated a novel ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method for the rapid quantification of MPA in plasma from dogs, cats and humans. Following the protein precipitation, calibration standards and quality controls were separated by UHPLC reversed-phase on a 1.5μm 2.1×100mmC18 column and quantified using UV detection at 215nm. The procedure produced a linear curve (r2>0.997) over the concentration range 0.4–50μg/mL and exhibited a high degree of repeatability (CV% <11%). The limit of detection (LOD) and lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) were 0.1 and ≤0.4μg/mL, respectively and the overall recovery was ≥87%. By combining isocratic conditions with a UHPLC column containing solid core particles, we were able to elute MPA and the internal standard (mycophenolic acid carboxybutoxy ether) within 3.0min. The short total run time makes this method ideal to study the disposition of MPA in large batches of plasma samples and/or monitor plasma drug concentrations, as recommended for patients that require optimized immunosuppression.

Analysis of Amikacin in Human Serum By UHPLC With Fluorescence Detector Using Chloro-Formate Reagent With Glycine

Background: Amikacin belongs to aminoglycosides family, commonly administered in the treatment of systemic infections due to gram negative bacteria. Its narrow therapeutic index results in adverse effects like nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity. Objective: Optimize an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) based analytical method for the determination of amikacin sulfate in human serum using derivatizaon with FMOCCl and glycine. Methods: Pre-column derivatization reaction of amikacin performed using fluorescence reagent 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate (FMOC-Cl) at ambient temperature in the presence of borate buffer (0.2 M). Stabilizing reagent glycine (0.1 M) added into the reaction mixture solution after completion of the derivatization reaction for stabilization of fluorescent complex product. Fluorimetric detection of amikacin was performed at excitation and emission wavelength of 265 nm and 315 nm respectively, using C18 UHPLC column. The reported method was validated by performing linearity, precision, recovery and ruggedness. Results: The optimum mobile phase composition was found to be Acetonitrile:water in the ratio of 70:30 (v/v) at flow rate of 0.4 ml/min. A linear response of amikacin in serum samples ranging from 0.5-10 μg/ml was obtained, with correlation co-efficient of 1.00. The limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 50 ng/ml. Both inter- and intra-day analysis co-efficient values were found to be less than 10%. Conclusion: The developed UHPLC method will be useful for pre-clinical and pharmacokinetic study of amikacin in human serum. Key words: Amikacin Sulphate, Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC), 9-Fluorenylmethyl chloroformate (FMOC-Cl) reagent, Borate buffer, Glycine, Fluorescence detector.

Systematic evaluation of commercially available ultra-high performance liquid chromatography columns for drug metabolite profiling: Optimization of chromatographic peak capacity

The present study investigated the practical use of modern ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) separation techniques for drug metabolite profiling, aiming to develop a widely applicable, high-throughput, easy-to-use chromatographic method, with a high chromatographic resolution to accommodate simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of small-molecule drugs and metabolites in biological matrices. To this end, first the UHPLC system volume and variance were evaluated. Then, a mixture of 17 drugs and various metabolites (molecular mass of 151–749Da, logP of −1.04 to 6.7), was injected on six sub-2μm particle columns. Five newest generation core shell technology columns were compared and tested against one column packed with porous particles. Two aqueous (pH 2.7 and 6.8) and two organic mobile phases were evaluated, first with the same flow and temperature and subsequently at each column's individual limit of temperature and pressure. The results demonstrated that pre-column dead volume had negligible influence on the peak capacity and shape. In contrast, a decrease in post-column volume of 57% resulted in a substantial (47%) increase in median peak capacity and significantly improved peak shape. When the various combinations of stationary and mobile phases were used at the same flow rate (0.5mL/min) and temperature (45°C), limited differences were observed between the median peak capacities, with a maximum of 26%. At higher flow though (up to 0.9mL/min), a maximum difference of almost 40% in median peak capacity was found between columns. The finally selected combination of solid-core particle column and mobile phase composition was chosen for its selectivity, peak capacity, wide applicability and peak shape. The developed method was applied to rat hepatocyte samples incubated with the drug buspirone and demonstrated to provide a similar chromatographic resolution, but a 6 times higher signal-to-noise ratio than a more traditional UHPLC metabolite profiling method using a fully porous particle packed column, within one third of the analysis time. In conclusion, a widely applicable, selective and fast chromatographic method was developed that can be applied to perform drug metabolite profiling in the timeframe of a quantitative analysis. It is envisioned that this method will in future be used for simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis and can therefore be considered a first important step in the Quan/Qual workflow.

Determination of Bentazone, Chloridazon and Terbuthylazine and Some of Their Metabolites in Complex Environmental Matrices by Liquid Chromatography–Electrospray Ionization–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Using a Modified QuEChERS Method: an Optimization and Validation Study

In a study on the behaviour of pesticides in a soil–plant–water system, the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) method for analysing pesticide or metabolite residues in soil and maize (leaves, roots and kernels) was optimized and validated. The pesticides bentazone, chloridazon and terbuthylazine and their metabolites bentazone-methyl, chloridazon-desphenyl, chloridazon-methyl-desphenyl, terbuthylazine-desethyl and terbuthylazine-2-hydroxy were selected in this study. The QuEChERS extracts obtained from soil and maize matrices and the collected leachate were analysed by liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–ESI–MS/MS) using a high-performance liquid chromatography and an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) analytical column. As expected, shorter run times and higher sensitivity were achieved with the UHPLC column. Validation studies focused on recovery, repeatability, matrix effects, limits of detection and quantification. Recoveries (and repeatability relative standard deviation (RSD)) of the spiked samples were in the range of 55 to 98 % (7.4–18) in soil, 23 to 101 % (1.7–20) in maize and 82 to 105 % (4.4–25) in leachate. Quantification limits were lower than 3.0 μg kg−1 in soil, 7.3 μg kg−1 in maize and 0.080 μg l−1 in leachate.

Pushing the performance limits of reversed-phase ultra high performance liquid chromatography with 1.3 μm core–shell particles

Innovative columns made with very small core–shell particles (1.0–1.4μm) were investigated over a wide experimental space using state-of-the-art ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) instruments. Among the columns tested is one that is now commercially available and is made with 1.3μm core–shell particles consisting of non-porous cores about 0.9μm in size and porous shells <0.2μm thick. This work demonstrated that exceptionally low observed minimum plate heights of 2.2μm could be obtained using columns packed with 1.3μm particles, corresponding to a plate count of over 450,000 plates/m. It was shown that only low volume columns allow operation under optimal conditions with current top-of-the-line UHPLC instruments. It was also demonstrated that the loss in performance caused by frictional heating effects remains negligible. Finally, the practical utility of these columns was confirmed with several real-world applications requiring extreme resolving power (i.e. peptide mapping, sample typical of metabolomic studies and crude human insulin). The performance achieved was compared to that of a reference UHPLC column packed with 1.7μm fully porous particles. The column packed with 1.3μm particles gave peak capacity values that were 20–40% higher than the reference column for the same analysis time.

Optimization of an Online Post-Column Derivatization System for Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) and Its Applications to Analysis of Biogenic Amines

We investigated the efficacy and utility of a post-column derivatization method for the detection of amines with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) in ultra high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). Since it was anticipated that a derivatization reaction system placed downstream of the column would give considerable band broadening to narrow peaks generated by a UHPLC column, we examined the contributions of the dimensions of the reaction tube, the fluorescence (FL) detector flow cell, and the column to the extra-column peak broadening, and optimized the post-column derivatization system in UHPLC. We successfully separated amines within 6 min with gradient elution by using the post-column derivatization system connected to a UHPLC system. The analysis time was reduced by a factor of 7 compared with that by conventional HPLC. The detection limits were 18.0 - 105.7 fmol, depending on the compounds; the reproducibilities were 0.11 - 0.82% RSD for the retention times and 0.78 - 1.66% RSD for the peak areas (n = 10), respectively. The linear dynamic ranges were up to 12, 20, and 40 pmol/μL, depending on the compounds, respectively.

Comparison of ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography for the analysis of pharmaceutical compounds

Currently, columns packed with sub-2μm particles are widely employed in liquid chromatography but are scarcely used in supercritical fluid chromatography. The goal of the present study was to compare the performance, possibilities and limitations of both ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography (UHPSFC) using columns packed with sub-2μm particles. For this purpose, a kinetic evaluation was first performed, and van Deemter curves and pressure plots were constructed and compared for columns packed with hybrid silica stationary phases composed of 1.7 and 3.5μm particles. As expected, the kinetic performance of the UHPSFC method was significantly better than that of the UHPLC. Indeed, the hmin values were in the same range with both strategies and were between 2.2 and 2.8, but uopt was increased by a factor of >4 in UHPSFC conditions. Another obvious advantage of UHPSFC over UHPLC is related to the generated backpressure, which is significantly lower in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical fluid. However, the upper pressure limit of the UHPSFC system was only ∼400bar vs. ∼1000bar in the UHPLC system, which prevents the use of highly organic mobile phases at high flow rates in UHPSFC. Second, the impact of reducing the particle size (from 3.5 to 1.7μm) was evaluated in both UHPLC and UHPSFC conditions. The effect of frictional heating on the selectivity was demonstrated in UHPLC and that of fluid density or decompression cooling was highlighted in UHPSFC. However, in both cases, a change in selectivity was observed for only a limited number of compounds. Third, various types of column chemistries packed with 1.7μm particles were evaluated in both UHPLC and UHPSFC conditions using a model mixture of acidic, neutral and basic compounds. It has been shown that more drastic changes in selectivity were obtained using UHPSFC columns compared to those obtained by changing UHPLC columns. In addition, there was a good complementarity between the two separation modes. Finally, by combining the use of small particles with supercritical fluids as a mobile phase, it was possible to achieve the analysis of pharmaceutical compounds in less than 1min or to attain a peak capacity of more than 250 in approximately 40min, both with a high degree of repeatability.