Evaluation of enantioselective binding of basic drugs to plasma by ACE

The present paper deals with the evaluation of the stereoselective binding of antihistamines (brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine, hydroxyzine, orphenadrine and phenindamine), phenothiazines (promethazine and trimeprazine) and a local anesthetic (bupivacaine) to human plasma proteins. Since all of them are drugs highly bound to proteins, a methodology to determine the bound fraction of each drug enantiomer was proposed. This methodology includes the incubation of samples containing plasma and racemic drug, ultrafiltration of the mixture and the chiral separation of enantiomers in the bound drug fraction using affinity EKC (AEKC)-partial filling technique and HSA as chiral selector. The results shown in this paper represent the first evidence of the enantioselective binding of some antihistamines such as brompheniramine, hydroxyzine, orphenadrine and phenindamine and the phenothiazines, promethazine and trimeprazine, to human plasma proteins. The binding of phenindamine to plasma presented the highest enantioselectivity (ES) (ES = 2.5) followed by trimeprazine (ES = 1.5) and promethazine (ES = 1.4).     

On the zopiclone enantioselective binding to human albumin and plasma proteins. An electrokinetic chromatography approach

In this work, a methodology for the chiral separation of zopiclone (ZPC) by electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) using carboxymethylated-β-cyclodextrin as chiral selector has been developed and applied to the evaluation of the enantioselective binding of ZPC enantiomers to HSA and total plasma proteins. Two mathematical approaches were used to estimate protein binding (PB), affinity constants (K(1)) and enantioselectivity (ES) for both enantiomers of ZPC. Contradictory results in the literature, mainly related to plasma protein binding reported data, suggest that this is an unresolved matter and that more information is needed. Discrepancies and coincidences with previous data are highlighted.     

Characterization of antihistamine-human serum protein interactions by capillary electrophoresis

An important topic in the drug discovery and development process is the role of drug binding to plasma proteins. In this paper the characterization of the interaction between antihistamines (cationic drugs) towards human serum albumin (HSA) and alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) under physiological conditions by capillary electrophoresis-frontal analysis is presented. Furthermore, the binding of these drugs to all plasma proteins is evaluated by using ultrafiltration and capillary electrophoresis. Antihistamines present a wide-ranging behaviour with respect to their affinities towards plasma proteins. Orphenadrine, phenindamine, tripelenamine and tripolidine principally bind to HSA; carbinoxamine, dimetindene and etintidine principally bind to AGP; brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine and ranitidine present an important binding to lipoproteins and/or globulins and finally, chlorcyclizine, cinarizine, cyclizine, doxylamine, hydroxyzine, perphenazine and terfenadine do not bind to lipoproteins and/or globulins but bind to HSA and AGP in different extension. The interaction of antihistamines with HSA is determined by the hydrophobicity (direct relationship) and the polar surface area (indirect relationship) of the compounds. The steric parameters and hydrogen bonding character of compounds seems to be related with the binding of antihistamines to AGP. The antihistamine-HSA affinity constants were evaluated and the K(1) values ranged from 7 x 10(2)M(-1) (for doxylamine) to 4 x 10(4)M(-1) (for phenindamine).     

Allosteric and competitive displacement of drugs from human serum albumin by octanoic acid, as revealed by high-performance liquid affinity chromatography, on a human serum albumin-based stationary phase.

A chiral stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatography, based upon immobilized human serum albumin (HSA), was used to investigate the effect of octanoic acid on the simultaneous binding of a series of drugs to albumin. Octanoic acid was found to bind with high affinity to a primary binding site, which in turn induced an allosteric change in the region of drug binding Site II, resulting in the displacement of compounds binding there. Approximately 80% of the binding of suprofen and ketoprofen to HSA was accounted for by binding at Site II. Octanoic acid was found to also bind to a secondary site on HSA, with much lower affinity. This secondary site appeared to be the warfarin-azapropazone binding area (drug binding Site I), as both warfarin and phenylbutazone were displaced in a competitive manner by high levels of octanoic acid. The enantioselective binding to HSA exhibited by warfarin, suprofen and ketoprofen was found to be due to differential binding of the enantiomers at Site I; the primary binding site for suprofen and ketoprofen was not enantioselective.     

Microseparation techniques for the study of the enantioselectivity of drug–plasma protein binding

Stereoselectivity in protein binding can have a significant effect on the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of chiral drugs. The investigation of enantioselectivity of drugs in their binding with human plasma proteins and the identification of the molecular mechanisms involved in the stereodiscrimination by the proteins represent a great challenge for clinical pharmacology. In this review, the separation techniques used for enantioselective protein binding experiments are described and compared. An overview of studies on enantiomer–protein interactions, enantiomer–enantiomer interactions as well as chiral drug–drug interactions, including allosteric effects, is presented. The contribution of individual plasma proteins to the overall enantioselective binding and the animal species variability in drug–plasma protein binding stereoselectivity are reviewed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of the enantioselective binding of imazalil to human serum albumin by capillary electrophoresis

In this work, a methodology for the evaluation of enantioselective binding of imazalil (IMA) enantiomers to human serum albumin (HSA) that does not require the separation of free and bound to HSA fractions is developed. This methodology comprises the incubation of IMA–HSA designed mixtures for 30 min directly in the capillary electrophoresis system and the subsequent direct injection and chiral separation of IMA employing highly sulfated β‐cyclodextrin as chiral selector and the complete filling technique. Two mathematical approaches were used to estimate apparent affinity constants (K₁), protein binding and enantioselectivity (ES) for both enantiomers of IMA. Moderate enantioselective binding of IMA enantiomers to HSA (ES = 2.0) was shown by the 1:1 stoichiometry and log K₁ values of 3.4 ± 0.4 and 3.1 ± 0.3 for the first and second eluted enantiomers, respectively. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Potential of human serum albumin as chiral selector of basic drugs in affinity electrokinetic chromatography-partial filling technique

The enantiomeric resolution of compounds using HSA by means of affinity EKC (AEKC)-partial filling technique is the result of a delicate balance between different experimental variables such as protein concentration, running pH (background electrophoretic buffer (BGE), protein, and compound solutions), and plug length. In this paper, the possibility of using HSA as chiral selector for enantioseparation of 28 basic drugs using this methodology is studied. The effect of the physicochemical parameters, the structural properties of compounds, and compound-HSA protein binding percentages over their chiral resolution with HSA is outlined. Based on the results obtained, a decision tree is proposed for the "a priori" prediction of the capability of HSA for enantioseparation of basic drugs in AEKC. The results obtained indicated that enantioresolution of basic compounds with HSA depends on the hydrophobicity, polarity, and molar volume of compounds.     

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry as a tool for determination of drug binding sites to human serum albumin by noncovalent interaction

Most proteins in blood plasma bind ligands. Human serum albumin (HSA) is the main transport protein with a very high capacity for binding of endogenous and exogenous compounds in plasma. Many pharmacokinetic properties of a drug depend on the level of binding to plasma proteins. This work reports studies of noncovalent interactions by means of nanoelectrospray ionization mass spectrometry (nanoESI-MS) for determination of the specific binding of selected drug candidates to HSA. Warfarin, iopanoic acid and digitoxin were chosen as site-specific probes that bind to the main sites of HSA. Two drug candidates and two known binders to HSA were analyzed using a competitive approach. The drugs were incubated with the target protein followed by addition of site-specific probes, one at a time. The drug candidates showed predominant affinity to site I (warfarin site). Naproxen and glyburide showed affinity to both sites I and II. The advantages of nanoESI-MS for these studies are the sensitivity, the absence of labeled molecules and the short method development time.     

Development of a disulfiram-modified human serum albumin-based HPLC column

Summary A human serum albumin (HSA)-based HPLC column has been modified in situ by disulfiram, an alcohol-deterrent drug reported to bind cys₃₄, the only free cysteine in HSA, under physiological conditions. The reversible and covalent binding of disulfiram was found to change the binding properties of the protein, giving rise to a new selector which performed differently from the native albumin-based stationary phase. When low concentrations of disulfiram were used as mobile phase modifier, reversible binding resulted in a cooperative allosteric effect with improved selector performance. Covalent modification resulted in markedly reduced affinity for binding of the drugs to sites I or II, while still maintaining enantioselectivity. This study has enabled the monitoring of interactions of disulfiram with potentially coadministered drugs, and the preparation of a chiral selector with different drug affinity and enantioselectivity.     

Characterization of basic drug-human serum protein interactions by capillary electrophoresis

Drug-protein interactions are determining factors in the therapeutic, pharmacodynamic and toxicological drug properties. The affinity of drugs towards plasmatic proteins is apparently well established in bibliography. Albumin (HSA) especially binds neutral and negatively charged compounds; alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) binds many cationic drugs, lipoproteins bind to nonionic and lipophilic drugs and some anionic drugs while globulins interact inappreciably with the majority of drugs. In this paper, the characterization of the interaction between cationic drugs, beta-blockers and phenotiazines towards HSA, AGP, and both HSA + AGP mixtures of proteins under physiological conditions by CE-frontal analysis is presented. Furthermore, the binding of these drugs to all plasmatic proteins is evaluated by using ultrafiltration and CE. The results indicate that the hydrophobic character of compounds seems to be the key factor on the interaction between cationic drugs towards proteins. In fact, hydrophobic basic drugs bind in great extension to HSA, while hydrophilic basic drugs present low interactions with proteins and bind especially to AGP.     

Electrokinetic chromatographic estimation of the enantioselective binding of nomifensine to human serum albumin and total plasma proteins

This report is the first evidence of enantioselective binding of nomifensine to human serum albumin (HSA) and plasma proteins. The overall process with HSA included: (i) consistent experimental design along two independent sessions; (ii) incubation of nomifensine–HSA designed mixtures; (iii) ultrafiltration for separating the unbound enantiomers fraction; (iv) electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) using heptakis‐2,3,6‐tri‐O‐methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin as chiral selector to provide experimental data for enantiomers (first, E1, and second, E2, eluted ones); and (v) a recent direct equation allowing univariate tests and robust statistics to provide consistent parameters and uncertainty. A significant enantioselectivity to HSA (2.7 ± 0.1) was encountered, related to a 1:1 stoichiometry and log affinity constants of 3.24 ± 0.10 and 3.67 ± 0.08 for E1 and E2, respectively. The protein binding (PB) estimated at physiological concentration levels was 40 ± 5 and 63 ± 4% for E1 and E2, respectively. The use of synthetic human sera allowed in vitro estimation of the total plasma PB for the racemate (61 ± 5%; coincident with in vivo values), and its enantiomers (58 ± 7 and 64 ± 4% for E1 and E2, respectively). Comparison allowed the relative importance of HSA respect to other plasma proteins for binding nomifensine to be established. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High-throughput detection of drugs binding to proteins using desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

In this paper, we present a strategy for screening drugs that bind to proteins by combining centrifugal filtration with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS). Membrane filtration was used to remove any unbound drugs. Then, drug–protein complexes deposited on the DESI substrate were dissociated during the DESI-MS analytical process, and the liberated drugs were measured. To validate the methodology, the screening of a series of drugs against two types of proteins was performed. Three DNA topoisomerase I (Topo I) inhibitors (camptothecin (CPT), hydroxycamptothecin (OHCPT) and 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN-38)) were screened against Topo I and the DNA-Topo I complex using DESI-MS. The results indicated that none of the inhibitors bound to Topo I, because the inhibitors had binding affinities only to the DNA-Topo I complex. Among the three drugs that bound to the DNA-Topo I complex, SN-38 had the strongest relative binding affinity, and CPT had the weakest relative binding affinity. The impact of the DESI spray solvent composition on the analysis of drug–protein complex binding was evaluated. Seven alkaloid drugs were also screened against Topo I using DESI-MS. Berberine and palmatine had good binding affinities. A screening of 21 types of drugs was carried out to determine whether the drugs bound to human serum albumin (HSA). The DESI-MS screening process could be achieved within 1.75 min. The study provides a method to qualitatively detect compounds that bind to proteins, showing great potential in drug design and screening.     

Application of liquid pre-column capillary electrophoresis technique to the study of interaction between drug enantiomers and human serum albumin

Based on the chiral separation of several basie drugs, dimetindene, tetryzoline, theodrenaline and verapamil, the liquid pre-colunm capillary electrophoresis (LPC-CE) technique was established. It was used to determine free concentrations of drug enantiomers in mixed solutions with human serum albumin (HSA). To prevent HSA entering the CE chiral separation zone, the mobility differences between HSA and drugs under a specific pH condition were employed in the LPC. Thus, the detection confusion caused by protein was totally avoided. Further study of binding constants determination and protein binding competitions was carried out. The study proves that the LPC technique could be used for complex media, particularly the matrix of protein coexisting with a variety of drugs.     

Kinetic studies of drug-protein interactions by using peak profiling and high-performance affinity chromatography: examination of multi-site interactions of drugs with human serum albumin columns

Carbamazepine and imipramine are drugs that have significant binding to human serum albumin (HSA), the most abundant serum protein in blood and a common transport protein for many drugs in the body. Information on the kinetics of these drug interactions with HSA would be valuable in understanding the pharmacokinetic behavior of these drugs and could provide data that might lead to the creation of improved assays for these analytes in biological samples. In this report, an approach based on peak profiling was used with high-performance affinity chromatography to measure the dissociation rate constants for carbamazepine and imipramine with HSA. This approach compared the elution profiles for each drug and a non-retained species on an HSA column and control column over a board range of flow rates. Various approaches for the corrections of non-specific binding between these drugs and the support were considered and compared in this process. Dissociation rate constants of 1.7 (±0.2) s(-1) and 0.67 (±0.04) s(-1) at pH 7.4 and 37°C were estimated by this approach for HSA in its interactions with carbamazepine and imipramine, respectively. These results gave good agreement with rate constants that have determined by other methods or for similar solute interactions with HSA. The approach described in this report for kinetic studies is not limited to these particular drugs or HSA but can also be extended to other drugs and proteins.     

Analysis of conformational change of human serum albumin using chiral capillary electrophoresis

The conformational change of human serum albumin (HSA) was studied through its binding with basic drug-mexiletine by chiral capillary electrophoresis. The effects of the conformational change of HSA resulted from pH, thermal, acute vibration, and alcohol on its chiral selectivity to mexiletine were investigated in detail. This study offers a simple and complementary method to investigate the binding of proteins with drugs and the characteristic of conformational change of protein. The method is easy to perform, high speed, low reagent consumption, and no modification is required to the commercially available CE instrument.     

Evaluation of alternatives to warfarin as probes for Sudlow site I of human serum albumin: characterization by high-performance affinity chromatography

Warfarin is often used as a site-specific probe for examining the binding of drugs and other solutes to Sudlow site I of human serum albumin (HSA). However, warfarin has strong binding to HSA and the two chiral forms of warfarin have slightly different binding affinities for this protein. Warfarin also undergoes a slow change in structure when present in common buffers used for binding studies. This report examined the use of four related, achiral compounds (i.e., coumarin, 7-hydroxycoumarin, 7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin, and 4-hydroxycoumarin) as possible alternative probes for Sudlow site I in drug binding studies. High-performance affinity chromatography and immobilized HSA columns were used to compare and evaluate the binding properties of these probe candidates. Binding for each of the tested probe candidates to HSA was found to give a good fit to a two-site model. The first group of sites had moderate-to-high affinities for the probe candidates with association equilibrium constants that ranged from 6.4 x 10(3)M(-1) (coumarin) to 5.5 x 10(4)M(-1) (4-hydroxycoumarin) at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C. The second group of weaker, and probably non-specific, binding regions, had association equilibrium constants that ranged from 3.8 x 10(1)M(-1) (7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin) to 7.3 x 10(2)M(-1) (coumarin). Competition experiments based on zonal elution indicated that all of these probe candidates competed with warfarin at their high affinity regions. Warfarin also showed competition with coumarin, 7-hydroxycoumarin and 7-hydroxy-4-methycoumarin for their weak affinity sites but appeared to not bind and/or compete for all of the weak sites of 4-hydroxycoumarin. It was found from this group that 4-hydroxycoumarin was the best alternative to warfarin for examining the interactions of drugs at Sudlow site I on HSA. These results also provided information on how the major structural components of warfarin contribute to the binding of this drug at Sudlow site I.     

Affinity capillary electrophoresis and fluorescence spectroscopy for studying enantioselective interactions between omeprazole enantiomer and human serum albumin

Baseline separation of omeprazole (OME) enantiomers was achieved by affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE), using human serum albumin (HSA) as the chiral selector. The influence of several experimental variables such as HSA concentration, the type and content of organic modifiers, applied voltage and running buffer concentration on the separation was evaluated. The binding of esomeprazole (S‐omeprazole, S‐OME) and its R‐enantiomer (R‐omeprazole, R‐OME) to HSA under simulated physiological conditions was studied by ACE and fluorescence spectroscopy which was considered as a reference method. ACE studies demonstrated that the binding constants of the two enantiomers and HSA were 3.18 × 10³ M⁻¹ and 5.36 × 10³ M⁻¹, respectively. The binding properties including the fluorescence quenching mechanisms, binding constants, binding sites and the number of binding sites were obtained by fluorescence spectroscopy. Though the ACE method could not get enough data when compared with the fluorescence spectrum method, the separation and binding studies of chiral drugs could be achieved simultaneously via this method. This study is of great significance for the investigation and clinical application of chiral drugs.     

Fractionation of human plasma proteins by hydrophobic interaction membrane chromatography

This paper discusses the fractionation of human plasma proteins HSA and HIgG by hydrophobic interaction membrane chromatography. A type of microporous polyvinylidine fluoride (PVDF) membrane having 0.1 μm pore size was identified as being suitable for carrying out this separation. This membrane bound HIgG at 1.5 M ammonium sulphate concentration, a condition at which HSA did not. Based on this selective binding resulting from the selective pressure induced by the high anti-chaotropic salt concentration, these human plasma proteins were fractionated. The HIgG binding capacity of the PVDF membrane examined in this study was 42.8 mg/ml at a feed concentration of 0.45 mg/ml. Separation of simulated HSA/HIgG mixtures were carried out in the pulse and step input modes and the HSA and HIgG fractions thus obtained were analysed for purity using affinity chromatography and SDS-PAGE. HSA and HIgG purities were typically in excess of 97–98%.     

High-throughput capillary electrophoresis frontal analysis method for the study of drug interactions with human serum albumin at near-physiological conditions

The application of the short-end capillary injection to capillary electrophoresis frontal analysis (CE-FA) to study the interaction between basic, neutral and acid drugs towards human serum albumin (HSA) at near-physiological conditions is presented. The compounds selected display a wide range of binding affinities and the results obtained were in good agreement with those reported in the literature. An equation for the estimation of the number of primary binding sites and their corresponding affinity constants is developed isolating the experimentally measured variables in just one axis. The proposed CE-FA method to screen drug interactions with HSA under physiological conditions is simple, rapid and cost-effective what may facilitate its implementation in the drug discovery process.     

Hyphenation of ionic liquid albumin glassy carbon biosensor or protein label-free sensor with differential pulse stripping voltammetry for interaction studies of human serum albumin with fenoprofen enantiomers

A new biosensor or protein label-free sensor composed of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphates (BMIMPF₆)-human serum albumin (HSA) film on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was produced. Unfortunately, the native proteins themselves are often unstable in physiological conditions. Here, we introduced conjugation with ionic liquid (IL) such as BMIMPF₆ which improved the stability and binding affinity of protein onto GCE. A rapid, simple and reliable method for the chiral discrimination and real time protein binding studies of fenoprofen enantiomers with HSA was developed by hyphenating ionic liquid albumin glassy carbon (ILAGC) biosensor with differential pulse cathodic stripping voltammetry under physiological conditions. The electrochemical behavior of chiral fenoprofen was monitored by cyclic voltammetry, from which large response was obtained from l-fenoprofen. The surface coverage of fenoprofen enantiomers was calculated by double potential-step chronocoulometry. The binding constants of chiral fenoprofen with HSA were estimated to be 3.2 × 10⁵ ± 0.3 L mol⁻¹ and 0.8 × 10⁴ ± 0.4 L mol⁻¹ for l- and d-fenoprofen, respectively giving acceptable precision (SD ≤ 0.4) and good agreement with the literature values. The competitive interactions of ibuprofen with fenoprofen enantiomers–HSA were studied giving a significant decreasing in the binding degrees of analytes to HSA. The reciprocal competitive experiments indicated that l-fenoprofen replaced d-fenoprofen from HSA. The proposed electrochemical biosensor holds great potential for chiral discrimination and real time binding studies of drugs with protein.