Capillary zone electrophoresis of cationic and anionic drugs in methanol

The actual mobilities and dissociation constants of acidic and basic pharmaceuticals were determined in methanol. Actual mobilities were derived from the dependence of the effective mobilities of the analytes on the pH of the methanolic background electrolyte solution (pH(MeOH)). The pKa values of the pharmaceuticals in methanol (pK(a,MeOH)) were calculated by non-linear curve fitting to the measured mobility values. It was found that the shift in pKa value (when compounds were transferred from water to methanol) increased with the acidity of the analyte. The average pKa shift for compounds exhibiting acidic properties in water was ca. 5.5 units, and the shift for basic compounds about 2 units. As was shown for a mixture of beta-blockers, the calculated actual mobilities and pKa values can be utilised in the optimisation of pH conditions for separation. The practical value of the method was illustrated by the analysis of urine samples.     

Capillary zone electrophoresis in methanol: migration behavior and background electrolytes

Nonaqueous (NA) solutions are often used as background electrolytes (BGEs) and NA solvents are added to aqueous BGEs as organic modifiers in capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), in order to optimize the separations. This can be tricky, however, because the pH* and pK* concepts may be totally different in NA solvents, whereas often less knowledge is available concerning phenomena, such as system zones, applying NA solvents. In this paper, the concepts of pH* and pK* are considered for methanol as a solvent and pK* values are determined for several components in mixtures of water and methanol. With a mathematical model, adapted for calculations in methanol, parameters are calculated describing the fronting or tailing character of peaks and the question of peaks or dips, and the existence of system zones is discussed for pure methanol as a solvent. These aspects are experimentally verified, applying BGEs useful for the separation of cationic species in the indirect UV mode. It can be concluded that the mathematical model developed for aqueous BGEs is applicable to BGEs in methanol, too, and that the behavior of BGEs in methanol is comparable with that in water concerning the fronting or tailing character of peaks and the question of peaks and dips, although the mobilities and pK values can change significantly.     

Capillary electrophoresis in N,N-dimethylformamide

N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) is a dipolar protophilic solvent with physicochemical properties that makes it suitable as solvent for capillary electrophoresis (CE). It is prerequisite for the proper application of CE to adjust and to change the pH of the background electrolyte (BGE) in a defined manner. This was done in the present work using benzoic acid-benzoate by selecting different concentration ratios of acid and salt, and calculating the theoretical pH from the activity-corrected Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. The mobilities of the analytes (chloro- and nitro-substituted phenolates) were found to follow reasonably well the typical sigmoid mobility versus pH curve as predicted by theory. The actual mobilities and pK(a) values (at 25 degrees C) of the analytes were derived from these curves. pK(a) values were in the range of 11.1-11.7, being thus 3-4.4 units higher than in water. This pK(a) shift is caused by the destabilization of the analyte anion and the better stability (solubility) of the molecular analyte acid in DMF, which overcome the higher basicity of DMF compared to water. Absolute mobilities were calculated from the actual mobilities; they were between 32x10(-9) and 42x10(-9) m(2)/Vxs. Slight deviations of the measured mobilities from the theoretical mobility versus pH curve were discussed on the bases of ion pairing and heteroconjugation and homoconjugation of either buffer components or buffer components and analytes. Heteroconjugation was used as a mechanism for the electrically driven separation of neutral analyte molecules in a BGE where salicylate acted as complex forming ion. Rough estimation of the complexation constants for the phenolic analytes gave values in the range of 100-200 L/mol. Addition of water to the solvent decreased the effect of heteroconjugation, but it was still present up to the surprisingly high concentration of 20% water. Electrophoretically relevant parameters like ionic mobilities and pK(a) values, and conjugation and ion pairing are dependent on the water content of the solvent. The water uptake of DMF was measured when exposed to humidity of ambient air. The resulted behavior of the water uptake was found rather similar to that for acetonitrile and methanol.     

Determination of acid-base dissociation constants of very weak zwitterionic heterocyclic bases by capillary zone electrophoresis

Thermodynamic acid-base dissociation (ionization) constants (pK(a)) of seven zwitterionic heterocyclic bases, first representatives of new heterocyclic family (2,3,5,7,8,9-hexahydro-1H-diimidazo[1,2-c:2',1'-f][1,3,2]diazaphosphinin-4-ium-5-olate 5-oxides), originally designed as chiral Lewis base catalysts for enantioselective reactions, were determined by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The pK(a) values of the above very weak zwitterionic bases were determined from the dependence of their effective electrophoretic mobility on pH in strongly acidic background electrolytes (pH 0.85-2.80). Prior to pK(a) calculation by non-linear regression analysis, the CZE measured effective mobilities were corrected to reference temperature, 25°C, and constant ionic strength, 25 mM. Thermodynamic pK(a) values of the analyzed zwitterionic heterocyclic bases were found to be particularly low, in the range 0.04-0.32. Moreover, from the pH dependence of effective mobility of the bases, some other relevant characteristics, such as actual and absolute ionic mobilities and hydrodynamic radii of the acidic cationic forms of the bases were determined.     

Resolution in capillary electrophoresis with nonaqueous methanol as solvent: theoretical prediction and experimental confirmation.

The resolution of the analytes was predicted from their known pKa* values and actual mobilities in nonaqueous methanolic solutions according to theory taking longitudinal diffusion as the only cause for peak dispersion. This leads to an equation of the resolution as a function of the pH*, as both selectivity and efficiency are dependent on the pH of the buffer. The experimentally obtained resolution values were in acceptable agreement with the predicted theoretical ones in most cases. This was demonstrated for substituted benzoic acids as analytes. The pKa* values needed for the calculation of the resolution were derived from the pH* dependence of the effective mobility. The pH* scale in methanol was based on conventional pKa* values of acetic acid and chloroacetic acid taken from the literature.     

Influence of methanol as a buffer additive on the mobilities of organic cations in capillary electrophoresis

The mobilities of a series of aromatic ammonium ions, ranging in charge from +1 to + 3, were investigated by capillary electrophoresis using buffers consisting of 0-75% v/v methanol. This is an extension of our previous studies involving anion mobility in methanol-water media [1]. Absolute mobilities were determined by extrapolation of the effective mobilities to zero ionic strength according to the Pitts' equation. For all of the buffer compositions studied, the ionic strength effect increased with increasing cation charge, and varied as a function of solvent 1/eta epsilon (1/2) as predicted by the electrophoretic term within the Pitts' equation. In the presence of methanol, the ionic strength effects became more dramatic. The absolute mobilities of the cations were altered by the addition of methanol to the electrophoretic media. For example, at 75% MeOH, a migration order reversal was observed between the + 2 and + 3 ammonium ions. These solvent-induced selectivity changes are attributed to dielectric friction. As predicted by the Hubbard-Onsager dielectric friction model, dielectric friction increased with increasing methanol content and with increasing analyte charge. Further, the changes in cation mobility correlated to the changes in solvent relaxation time (tau), epsilon and eta. Although not predicted by the Hubbard-Onsager theory, the + 3 ammonium ion experienced more dielectric friction than the - 3 sulfonate and - 3 carboxylate investigated previously [1]. This apparent failure of the Hubbard-Onsager model results from its continuum nature, whereby ion-solvent interactions are not taken into account.     

Peptide separations and dissociation constants in nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis: comparison of methanol and aqueous buffers

Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis was evaluated for its potential to separate peptides in methanolic background electrolytes in comparison to aqueous-methanol (50% v/v) and water. Isomeric aspartyl dipeptides and Leu- and Met-enkephalin served as model compounds. pK(a) values were determined in the three solvent systems based on the apparent pH scale and in the case of methanol additionally based on the conventional pH scale. Changing from water to methanol led to an increase of the ionization constants describing the dissociation equilibria of the carboxyl group and the amino group, respectively. The pK(a) shift was more pronounced for the carboxylic acid function leading to a compression of the mobility-pH curve. As reported for aqueous buffers, efficient separations of the peptides were achieved in methanolic background electrolytes including the resolution of the diastereomers of the isomeric alpha- and beta-aspartyl dipeptides. In contrast to aqueous buffers, the separation of Leu- and Met-enkephalin could also be obtained in buffers in methanol at high pH.     

Determination of the chromatographic hydrophobicity index for ionisable solutes

A model that relates the chromatographic hydrophobicity index (CHI) to the pH of the mobile phase has been tested in two of the most common high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) solvents: methanol and acetonitrile. A set of eight monoprotic acids and nine monoprotic bases of different chemical nature (phenols, benzoic acids, anilines, and pyridine) have been selected for the validation. The variation of CHI values with the pH of the mobile phase shows a good fit to the model for almost all compounds, regardless of their nature, and similar CHI values of the neutral form of the substances are obtained in both organic modifiers. On the contrary, higher differences are observed for the ionic form of the test solutes. The values of the other parameters obtained with the model (s, pK(a)) are discussed according to the nature of the compounds, and the variation of solvent pH and compounds pK(a) along the gradient elution.     

Determination of acid-base dissociation constants of azahelicenes by capillary zone electrophoresis

CZE was employed to determine acid-base dissociation constants (pK(a)) of ionogenic groups of azahelicenes in methanol (MeOH). Azahelicenes are unique 3-D aromatic systems, which consist of ortho-fused benzene/pyridine units and exhibit helical chirality. The pK(a) values of pyridinium groups of the studied azahelicenes were determined from the dependence of their effective electrophoretic mobility on pH by a nonlinear regression analysis. The effective mobilities of azahelicenes were determined by CZE at pH range between 2.1 and 10.5. Thermodynamic pK(a) values of monobasic 1-aza[6]helicene and 2-aza[6]helicene in MeOH were determined to be 4.94 +/- 0.05 and 5.68 +/- 0.05, respectively, and pK(a) values of dibasic 1,14-diaza[5]helicene were found to be equal to 7.56 +/- 0.38 and 8.85 +/- 0.26. From these values, the aqueous pK(a) of these compounds was estimated.     

Comparative analysis of QSAR models for predicting pK(a) of organic oxygen acids and nitrogen bases from molecular structure

For 1143 organic compounds comprising 580 oxygen acids and 563 nitrogen bases that cover more than 17 orders of experimental pK(a) (from -5.00 to 12.23), the pK(a) prediction performances of ACD, SPARC, and two calibrations of a semiempirical quantum chemical (QC) AM1 approach have been analyzed. The overall root-mean-square errors (rms) for the acids are 0.41, 0.58 (0.42 without ortho-substituted phenols with intramolecular H-bonding), and 0.55 and for the bases are 0.65, 0.70, 1.17, and 1.27 for ACD, SPARC, and both QC methods, respectively. Method-specific performances are discussed in detail for six acid subsets (phenols and aromatic and aliphatic carboxylic acids with different substitution patterns) and nine base subsets (anilines, primary, secondary and tertiary amines, meta/para-substituted and ortho-substituted pyridines, pyrimidines, imidazoles, and quinolines). The results demonstrate an overall better performance for acids than for bases but also a substantial variation across subsets. For the overall best-performing ACD, rms ranges from 0.12 to 1.11 and 0.40 to 1.21 pK(a) units for the acid and base subsets, respectively. With regard to the squared correlation coefficient r2, the results are 0.86 to 0.96 (acids) and 0.79 to 0.95 (bases) for ACD, 0.77 to 0.95 (acids) and 0.85 to 0.97 (bases) for SPARC, and 0.64 to 0.87 (acids) and 0.43 to 0.83 (bases) for the QC methods, respectively. Attention is paid to structural and method-specific causes for observed pitfalls. The significant subset dependence of the prediction performances suggests a consensus modeling approach.     

Effect of temperature on the chromatographic retention of ionizable compounds. III. Modeling retention of pharmaceuticals as a function of eluent pH and column temperature in RPLC

We propose a general simple equation for accurately predicting the retention factors of ionizable compounds upon simultaneous changes in mobile phase pH and column temperature at a given hydroorganic solvent composition. Only four independent experiments provide the input data: retention factors measured in two pH buffered mobile phases at extreme acidic and basic pH values (e. g., at least +/- 2 pH units far from the analyte pK(a)) and at two column temperatures. The equations, derived from the basic thermodynamics of the acid-base equilibria, additionally require the knowledge of the solute pK(a )and enthalpies of acid-base dissociation of both the solute and the buffer components in the hydroorganic solvent mixture. The performance of the predictive model is corroborated with the comparison between theoretical and experimental retention factors of several weak acids and bases of important pharmacological activity, in mobile phases containing different buffer solutions prepared in 25% w/w ACN in water and at several temperatures.     

Nitromethane as solvent in capillary electrophoresis

Nitromethane has several properties that make it an interesting solvent for capillary electrophoresis especially for lipophilic analytes that are not sufficiently soluble in water: freezing and boiling points are suitable for laboratory conditions, low viscosity leads to favourable electrophoretic mobilities, or an intermediate dielectric constant enables dissolution of electrolytes. In the present work we investigate the change of electrophoretically relevant analyte properties - mobilities and pKa values - in nitromethane in dependence on the most important experimental conditions determined by the background electrolyte: the ionic strength, I, and the pH. It was found that the mobility decreases with increasing ionic strength (by, e.g. up to 30% from I = 0 to 50 mmol/L) according to theory. An appropriate pH scale is established by the aid of applying different concentration ratios of a buffer acid with known pKa and its conjugate base. The mobility of the anionic analytes (from weak neutral acids) depends on the pH with the typical sigmoidal curve in accordance with theory. The pKa of neutral acids derived from these curves is shifted by as much as 14 pK units in nitromethane compared to water. Both findings confirm the agreement of the electrophoretic behaviour of the analytes with theories of electrolyte solutions. Separation of several neutral analytes was demonstrated upon formation of charged complexes due to heteroconjugation with chloride as ionic constituent of the background electrolyte.     

Amines That Transport Protons across Bilayer Membranes: Synthesis, Lysosomal Neutralization, and Two-Phase pK(a) Values by NMR

It is desirable to be able to control the pH of lysosomes. A collection of lipophilic, nitrogenous bases, designed to act as membrane-active, catalytic proton transfer agents, were prepared and their effective pK(a)s measured in a vigorously stirred, two-phase system. One phase was a phosphate buffer whose pH was varied over the range ca. 1-11. The other was an immiscible, deuterated organic solvent in which the compounds preferentially resided even when protonated. When chemical shift changes versus the pH of the buffer were plotted, clear pK(a) curves were generated that are relevant to transmembrane proton transfer behavior. The two-phase pK(a)s increased with increasing counterion lipophilicity and with increasing organic solvent polarity. The compounds were also tested for their ability to neutralize the acidity of lysosomes, a model for other acidic vesicles involved in drug sorting. The most successful of these, imidazole 6a, has >100 times the neutralizing power of ammonia, a standard lysosomotropic amine, causing a 1.7 unit rise in lysosomal pH of RAW cells at 0.1 mM, compared to a 0.2 and 1.4 unit rise for ammonium chloride at 0.1 and 10 mM, respectively.     

Potentiometric determination of the dissociation constants of L-histidine, proline and tryptophane in various hydroorganic media

The dissociation constant values of L-histidine, proline and tryptophane were determined at 25 +/- 0.1 degrees C by potentiometric pH titration in pure water and different hydroorganic solvent media. The organic solvents used were methanol, ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, acetone and dioxane. Initial estimates of the dissociation constant values of the different amino acids studied have been refined with ESAP2M computer program. It was observed that changing the medium permittivity as the solvent is enriched in methanol or ethanol has little influence on the pK*(a) values of the amino acids studied. The results obtained are discussed in terms of average macroscopic properties of the mixed solvents and the possible variation in microheterogeneity of the salvation shells around the solute.     

Acidity constants from vertical energy gaps: density functional theory based molecular dynamics implementation

The question of how to compute acidity constants (pK(a)) treating solvent and solute at the same level of theory remains of some interest, for example in the case of high or low pH conditions. We have developed a density functional theory based molecular dynamics implementation of such a method. The method is based on a half reaction scheme computing free energies of dissociation from the vertical energy gaps for insertion or removal of protons. Finite system size effects are important, but largely cancel when half reactions are combined to full reactions. We verified the method by investigating a series of organic and inorganic acids and bases spanning a wide range of pK(a) values (20 units). We find that the response of the aqueous solvent to vertical protonation/deprotonation is almost always asymmetric and correlated with the strength of the hydrogen bonding of the deprotonated base. We interpret these observations in analogy with the picture of solvent response to electronic ionization.     

Capillary zone electrophoresis of basic drugs in non-aqueous acetonitrile with buffers based on a conventional pH scale

Summary The pK _a ^* values of 10 nitrogen-containing basic drugs in non-aqueous acetonitrile were determined from the pH^* dependence of their electrophoretic mobilities. The pH^* scale in the organic solvent was established using background electrolytes with known conventional pK _a ^* values, making further calibration with reference pH electrodes unnecessary. In acetonitrile the pK _a ^* values of analytes (or their conjugated cation acids, BH⁺, respectively) were 5.2±8.9 pK units>those in water. The observed change in pK _a ^* values of cationic analytes was, however, much less than the known respective change for neutral acids type HA. From the pK _a ^* values and the actual mobilities, it is possible to predict pH^* conditions to enable separation of analytes, and this was demonstrated for two pairs of common drugs.     

Investigation of the effect of ionic strength of Tris-acetate background electrolyte on electrophoretic mobilities of mono-, di-, and trivalent organic anions by capillary electrophoresis

The effect of ionic strength of the background electrolyte (BGE) composed of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) and acetic acid on the electrophoretic mobility of mono-, di- and trivalent anions of aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic and sulfonic acids was investigated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). Actual ionic mobilities of the above anions were determined from their CZE separations in Tris-acetate BGEs of pH 8.1 to 8.2 in the 3 to 100 mM ionic strength interval at constant temperature (25 degrees C). It was found that the ionic strength dependence of experimentally determined actual ionic mobilities does not follow the course supposed by the classical Onsager theory. A steeper decrease of actual ionic mobilities with the increasing ionic strength of BGE and a higher estimated limiting mobility of the anions than that found in the literature could be attributed to the specific behavior of the Tris-acetate BGEs. Presumably, not only a single type of interaction of anionic analytes with BGE constituents but rather the combination of effects, such as ion association or complexation equilibria, seems to be responsible for the observed deviation of the concentration dependence of the actual ionic mobilities from the Onsager theory. Additionally, several methods for the determination of limiting ionic mobilities from CZE measured actual ionic mobilities were evaluated. It turned out that the determined limiting ionic mobilities significantly depend on the calculation procedure used.     

Effects of aromatic thiols on thiol-disulfide interchange reactions that occur during protein folding

The folding of disulfide containing proteins from denatured protein to native protein involves numerous thiol-disulfide interchange reactions. Many of these reactions include a redox buffer, which is a mixture of a thiol (RSH) and the corresponding disulfide (RSSR). The relationship between the structure of RSH and its efficacy in folding proteins in vitro has been investigated only to a limited extent. Reported herein are the effects of aliphatic and especially aromatic thiols on reactions that occur during protein folding. Aromatic thiols may be particularly efficacious as their thiol pK(a) values and reactivities match those of the in vivo catalyst, protein disulfide isomerase (PDI). This investigation correlates the thiol pK(a) values of aromatic thiols with their reactivities toward small molecule disulfides and the protein insulin. The thiol pK(a) values of nine para-substituted aromatic thiols were measured; a Hammett plot constructed using sigma(p-) values yielded rho = -1.6 +/- 0.1. The reactivities of aromatic and aliphatic thiols with 2-pyridyldithioethanol (2-PDE), a small molecule disulfide, were determined. A plot of reactivity versus pK(a) of the aromatic thiols had a slope (beta) of 0.9. The ability of these thiols to reduce (unfold) the protein insulin correlates strongly with their ability to reduce 2-PDE. Since the reduction of protein disulfides occurs during protein folding to remove mismatched disulfides, aromatic thiols with high pK(a) values are expected to increase the rate not only of protein unfolding but protein folding as well.     

Formamide as solvent for capillary zone electrophoresis

A comprehensive investigation of a number of aspects when using formamide as background electrolyte solvent in capillary zone electrophoresis was presented. It included (i) the change of the ion mobility with ionic strength, (ii) the influence of the ionic strength on diffusion coefficients, and (iii) on the separation efficiency expressed by the maximum reachable plate numbers (when only longitudinal diffusion contributed to zone broadening), (iv) the effect of the solvent on pKa values (taken from the literature) of neutral and cation acids, (v) the establishment of the a pH scale in formamide by dissolving acids with known pKa values and their salts at defined proportion (thus circumventing the problem of calibrating the pH meter), (vi) the agreement between the experimentally derived and the theoretical dependence of the effective mobility on pH, (vii) the uptake of water of this hygroscopic solvent from the humidity of the environment and its consequence to the ion mobilities, pKa values, and the chemical stability of the solvent (e.g., hydrolysis), and finally (viii) the use of conductivity and indirect UV absorption to enable detection of analytes below the optical cutoff of formamide.     

pK(a) values and geometries of secondary and tertiary amines complexed to boronic acids-implications for sensor design

[structure in text] The pK(a) values and the geometries of secondary and tertiary amines adjacent to boronic acids were determined using potentiometric and (11)B NMR titrations. The studies showed that the secondary ammonium ion has a pK(a) similar to that of the tertiary ammonium species, which leads to the formation of tetrahedral boron centers at pH values above approximately 5.5. Therefore, secondary amines as well as tertiary amines, when placed proximal to boron centers, can be used to create tetrahedral boronic acids at neutral pH for diol complexation.