Development of a high‐performance liquid chromatography method for the simultaneous determination of chiral impurities and assay of (S)‐clopidogrel using a cellulose‐based chiral stationary phase in methanol/water mode

A simple reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography method for the chiral separation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (S)‐clopidogrel has been developed on the cellulose‐based Chiralcel OJ‐RH chiral stationary phase. The S enantiomer was baseline resolved from its R impurity (impurity C) with a mobile phase consisting of methanol/water (100:15) without any interference coming from the other two potential chiral impurities A and B. The enantio‐ and chemoselective method was partially validated and compared with that reported in the United States Pharmacopoeia for the drug product. The versatility of the Chiralcel OJ‐RH allowed separating the enantiomers of the impurity B also under normal phase and setting up an efficient strategy to convert the racemic sample into the enantiomeric S form on a semipreparative scale.     

High‐performance liquid chromatography enantioseparation of polyhalogenated 4,4′‐bipyridines on polysaccharide‐based chiral stationary phases under multimodal elution

An investigation on the high‐performance liquid chromatography enantioseparation of 12 polyhalogenated 4,4′‐bipyridines on polysaccharide‐based chiral stationary phases is described. The overall study was directed toward the generation of efficient separations in order to obtain pure atropisomers that will serve as ligands for building homochiral metal organic frameworks. Four coated columns—namely, Lux Cellulose‐1, Lux Cellulose‐2, Lux Cellulose‐4, and Lux Amylose‐2—and two immobilized columns—namely, Chiralpak IC and IA—were used under normal, polar organic, and reversed‐phase elution modes. Moreover, Chiralcel OJ was considered under normal‐phase and polar organic conditions. The effect of the chiral selector and mobile phase composition on the enantioseparation, the enantiomer elution order and the beneficial effect of nonstandard solvents were studied. The effect of water in the mobile phase on the enantioselectivity and retention was investigated and retention profiles typical of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography were observed. Interesting phenomena of solvent‐induced enantiomer elution order reversal occurred under normal‐phase mode. All the considered 4,4′‐bipyridines were enantioseparated at the multimilligram level.     

Dual‐mode hydrophilic interaction normal phase and reversed phase liquid chromatography of polar compounds on a single column

Adopting a stationary phase convention circumvents problematic definition of the boundary between the stationary and the mobile phase in the liquid chromatography, resulting in thermodynamically consistent and reproducible chromatographic data. Three stationary phase definition conventions provide different retention data, but equal selectivity: (i) the complete solid phase moiety; (ii) the solid porous part carrying the active interaction centers; (iii) the volume of the inner column pores. The selective uptake of water from the bulk aqueous‐organic mobile phase significantly affects the volume and the properties of polar stationary phases. Some polar stationary phases provide dual‐mode retention mechanism in aqueous‐organic mobile phases, reversed‐phase in the water‐rich range, and normal‐phase at high concentrations of the organic solvent in water. The linear solvation energy relationship model characterizes the structural contributions of the non‐selective and selective polar interactions both in the water‐rich and organic solvent‐rich mobile phases. The inner‐pore convention provides a single hold‐up volume value for the retention prediction on the dual‐mode columns over the full mobile phase range. Using the dual‐mode monolithic polymethacrylate zwitterionic micro‐columns alternatively in each mode in the first dimension of two‐dimensional liquid chromatography, in combination with a short reversed‐phase column in the second dimension, provides enhanced sample information.     

Determination of lansoprazole enantiomers in dog plasma by column‐switching liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and its application to a preclinical pharmacokinetic study

Lansoprazole, a selective proton pump inhibitor, has a chiral benzimidazole sulfoxide structure and is used for the treatment of gastric acid hypersecretory related diseases. To investigate its stereoselective pharmacokinetics, a column‐switching liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of lansoprazole enantiomers in dog plasma using (+)‐pantoprazole as an internal standard. After a simple protein precipitation procedure with acetonitrile, matrix components left behind after sample preparation were further eliminated from the sample by reversed‐phase chromatography on a C₁₈ column. The fluent was fed to a chiral column for the separation of lansoprazole enantiomers. Baseline separation of lansoprazole enantiomers was achieved on a Chiralcel OZ‐RH column using acetonitrile/0.1% formic acid in water (35:65, v/v) as the mobile phase at 40°C. The linearity of the calibration curves ranged from 3 to 800 ng/mL for each enantiomer. Intra‐ and inter‐day precisions ranged from 2.1 to 7.3% with an accuracy of ±1.7% for (+)‐lansoprazole, and from 1.6 to 6.9% with an accuracy of ±3.5% for (–)‐lansoprazole, respectively. The validated method was successfully applied for the stereoselective pharmacokinetic study of lansoprazole in beagle dog after intravenous infusion.     

Enantiomeric separation of 2‐arylpropionic acid nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs by HPLC with hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin as chiral mobile phase additive

The enantio‐separations of eight 2‐arylpropionic acid nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (2‐APA NSAIDs) were established using reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography with hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (HP‐β‐CD) as chiral mobile phase additive for studying the stereoselective skin permeation of suprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, indoprofen, fenoprofen, furbiprofen, ibuprofen and carprofen. The effects of the mobile phase composition, concentration of HP‐β‐CD and column temperature on retention and enantioselective separation were investigated. With 2‐APA NSAIDs as acidic analytes, the retention times and resolutions of the enantiomers were strongly related to the pH of the mobile phase. In addition, both the concentration of HP‐β‐CD and temperature had a great effect on retention time, but only a slight or almost no effect on resolutions of the analytes. Enantioseparations were achieved on a Shimpack CLC‐ODS (150 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) column. The mobile phase was a mixture of methanol and phosphate buffer (pH 4.0–5.5, 20 mM) containing 25 mM HP‐β‐CD. This method was flexible, simple and economically advantageous over the use of chiral stationary phase, and was successfully applied to the enantioselective determination of the racemic 2‐APA NSAIDs in an enantioselective skin permeation study. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chiral separation of lenalidomide by liquid chromatography on polysaccharide‐type stationary phases and by capillary electrophoresis using cyclodextrin selectors

Complementary techniques were applied for the investigation of the chiral recognition and enantiomeric resolution of lenalidomide using various cyclodextrins and polysaccharides as chiral selectors. The high‐performance liquid chromatography enantioseparation of the anticancer drug was achieved using polysaccharide‐type chiral stationary phases in polar organic mode. Elution order and absolute configuration were elucidated by combined circular dichroism spectroscopy and time‐dependent density functional theory calculations after the isolation of pure enantiomers. Chiral selector dependent and mobile‐phase dependent reversal of the enantiomer elution order was observed, and the nonracemic nature of the lenalidomide sample was also demonstrated. Eight anionic cyclodextrins were screened for their ability to discriminate between the uncharged enantiomers by using capillary electrophoresis. Only two derivatives presented chiral interactions, these cases being interpreted in terms of apparent stability constants and complex mobilities. The best results were delivered by sulfobutylether‐β‐cyclodextrin, where quasi‐equal stability constants were recorded and the enantiodiscrimination process was mainly driven by different mobilities of the transient diastereomeric complexes. The optimized high‐performance liquid chromatography (Chiralcel OJ column, pure ethanol with 0.6 mL/min flow rate, 40°C) and capillary electrophoresis methods (30 mM sulfobutylether‐β‐cyclodextrin, 30 mM phosphate pH 6.5, 12 kV applied voltage, 10°C) were validated for the determination of 0.1% (R)‐lenalidomide as a chiral impurity, which could be important if a racemic switch is achieved.     

Poly(l‐lactic acid)‐modified silica stationary phase for reversed‐phase and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography

Poly(l ‐lactic acid) is a linear aliphatic thermoplastic polyester that can be produced from renewable resources. A poly(l ‐lactic acid)‐modified silica stationary phase was newly prepared by amide bond reaction between amino groups on aminopropyl silica and carboxylic acid groups at the end of the poly(l ‐lactic acid) chain. The poly(l ‐lactic acid)‐silica column was characterized in reversed‐phase liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography with the use of different mobile phase compositions. The poly(l ‐lactic acid)‐silica column was found to work in both modes, and the retention of test compounds depending on acetonitrile content exhibited “U‐shaped” curves, which was an indicator of reversed‐phase liquid chromatography/hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography mixed‐mode retention behavior. In addition, carbonyl groups included into the poly(l ‐lactic acid) backbone work as an electron‐accepting group toward a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and provide π–π interactions.     

Enantioseparation tuned by solvent polarity on a β‐cyclodextrin clicked chiral stationary phase

The efficient enantioseparation of 26 racemates has been achieved with the perphenylcarbamoylated cyclodextrin clicked chiral stationary phase by screening the optimum composition of mobile phase in high‐performance liquid chromatography. The chromatographic results indicate that both the retention and chiral resolution of racemates are closely related to the polarity of the mobile phases and the structures of analytes. The addition of alcohols can significantly tune the enantioseparation in normal‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography. The addition of methanol and the ratio of ethanol/methanol or isopropanol/methanol played a key role on the resolution of flavonoids in ternary eluent systems. The chiral separation of flavonoids with pure organic solvent as mobile phase indicates the preferential order for chiral resolution is methanol>ethanol>isopropanol>n‐propanol>acetonitrile.     

Enantioseparation of tryptophan and its unnatural derivatives by nano‐LC on CSP‐teicoplanin silica based

This work deals with the potentiality of nano liquid chromatography (Nano‐LC) for the chiral separation of racemic mixture of tryptophan and some selected derivatives by using 100 µm i.d. fused silica capillary packed with teicoplanin bonded to 5 µm diol silica stationary phase. The experiments were carried out by using a cheap and laboratory‐assembled nano‐LC–UV system. Elution was done in an isocratic mode using a polar organic mobile phase. In order to find the optimum chiral separation of the studied enantiomers, some chromatographic experimental parameters were systematically studied and optimized. Among them, mobile phase composition, namely organic modifier type and concentration, buffer type and pH and aqueous content and sample solvent dilution on retention time, retention factor and enantioresolution factor were studied. Baseline enantioresolution and good peak shape was achieved utilizing the mobile phase containing 40 mM ammonium formate at pH pH 2.5 in ACN/water/acetone (60:30:10, v/v/v) at 520 nL/min in less than 8 min analysis time.     

Preparation of a monolithic column with a mixed‐mode stationary phase of reversed‐phase/hydrophilic interaction for capillary liquid chromatography

A monolithic capillary column with a mixed‐mode stationary phase of reversed‐phase/hydrophilic interaction chromatography was prepared for capillary liquid chromatography. The monolith was created by an in‐situ copolymerization of a homemade monomer N,N‐dimethyl‐N‐acryloxyundecyl‐N‐(3‐sulfopropyl) ammonium betaine and a crosslinker pentaerythritol triacrylate in a binary porogen agent consisting of methanol and isopropanol. The functional monomer was designed to have a highly polar zwitterionic sulfobetaine terminal group and a hydrophobic long alkyl chain moiety. The composition of the polymerization solution was systematically optimized to permit the best column performance. The columns were evaluated by using acidic, basic, polar neutral analytes, as well as a set of alkylbenzenes and Triton X100. Very good separations were obtained on the column with the mixed‐mode stationary phase. It was demonstrated that the mixed‐mode stationary phase displayed typic dual retention mechanisms of reversed‐phase/hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography depending on the content of acetonitrile in the mobile phase. The method for column preparation is reproducible.     

HPLC enantioseparation of β2‐homoamino acids using crown ether‐based chiral stationary phase

RP high‐performance liquid chromatographic methods were developed for the enantioseparation of eleven unusual β²‐homoamino acids. The underivatized analytes were separated on a chiral stationary phase containing (+)‐(18‐crown‐6)‐2,3,11,12‐tetracarboxylic acid as chiral selector. The effects of organic (alcoholic) and acidic modifiers, the mobile phase composition and temperature on the separation were investigated. The structures of the substituents in the α‐position of the analytes substantially influenced the retention and resolution. The elution sequence was determined in some cases: the S enantiomers eluted before the R enantiomers.     

Direct chiral resolution of underivatized amino acids on a stationary phase dynamically modified with the ion‐exchanger Nτ‐decyl‐l‐spinacine

Increasing attention has been devoted in the last decades to chiral chromatography, principally to high‐performance liquid chromatography techniques using a chiral stationary phase. Many chiral high‐performance liquid chromatography columns are commercially available, but, unfortunately, they are most often rather expensive. A cheap alternative to the commercial chiral columns is the dynamic‐coating procedure of a standard achiral stationary phase with a chiral selector containing both a chiral domain and a chain or a group able to tightly (but noncovalently) bind the achiral support. This is the case of N^τ‐decyl‐l ‐spinacine, already successfully employed to dynamically cover a reversed‐phase column to separate racemic mixtures of amino acids through the ligand‐exchange mechanism. In the present work, the same chiral selector is employed to separate racemic mixtures of amino acids and oligopeptides, in the absence of metal ions: no coordination complex is formed, but only electrostatic and weak nonbonding interactions between the chiral phase and the analytes are responsible for the observed enantioselectivity. The new method is simpler than the previous one, very effective in the case of aromatic amino acids and oligopeptides and also suitable for preparative purposes.     

Enantioselective determination of (R)‐ and (S)‐lansoprazole in human plasma by chiral liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry and its application to a stereoselective pharmacokinetic study

A simple and enantioselective method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of (R)‐ and (S)‐lansoprazole in human plasma by chiral liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Lansoprazole enantiomers and internal standard (esomeprazole) were extracted from plasma using acetonitrile as protein precipitating agent. Baseline chiral separation was achieved within 9.0 min on a Chiralpak IC column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with the column temperature of 30°C. The mobile phase consisted of 10 mM ammonium acetate solution containing 0.05% acetic acid/acetonitrile (50:50, v/v). The mass spectrometric analysis was performed using a QTrap 5500 mass spectrometer coupled with an electrospray ionization source in positive ion mode. The multiple reactions monitoring transitions of m/z 370.1→252.1 and 346.1→198.1 were used to quantify lansoprazole enantiomers and esomeprazole, respectively. For each enantiomer, no apparent matrix effect was found, the calibration curve was linear over 5.00–3000 ng/mL, the intra‐ and inter‐day precisions were below 10.0%, and the accuracy was –3.8 to 3.3%. Analytes were stable during the study. No chiral inversion was observed during sample storage, preparation procedure and analysis. The method was applied to the stereoselective pharmacokinetic studies in human after intravenous administration of dexlansoprazole or racemic lansoprazole.     

Preparative enantioseparation of loxoprofen precursor by recycling countercurrent chromatography with hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin as a chiral selector

Recycling countercurrent chromatography was successfully applied to the resolution of 2‐(4‐bromomethylphenyl)propionic acid, a key synthetic intermediate for synthesis of nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drug loxoprofen, using hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin as chiral selector. The two‐phase solvent system composed of n‐hexane/n‐butyl acetate/0.1 mol/L citrate buffer solution with pH 2.4 (8:2:10, v/v/v) was selected. Influence factors for the enantioseparation were optimized, including type of substituted β‐cyclodextrin, concentration of hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin, separation temperature, and pH of aqueous phase. Under optimized separation conditions, 50 mg of 2‐(4‐bromomethylphenyl)propionic acid was enantioseparated using preparative recycling countercurrent chromatography. Technical details for recycling elution mode were discussed. The purities of both the S and R enantiomers were over 99.0% as determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography. The enantiomeric excess of the S and R enantiomers reached 98.0%. The recovery of the enantiomers from eluted fractions was 40.8–65.6%, yielding 16.4 mg of the S enantiomer and 10.2 mg of the R enantiomer. At the same time, we attempted to enantioseparate the anti‐inflammatory drug loxoprofen by countercurrent chromatography and high‐performance liquid chromatography using a chiral mobile phase additive. However, no successful enantioseparation was achieved so far.     

Efficient preparative separation of β‐cypermethrin stereoisomers by supercritical fluid chromatography with a two‐step combined strategy

An efficient two‐step method has been developed for the separation of β‐cypermethrin stereoisomers by supercritical fluid chromatography with polysaccharide chiral stationary phases. With respect to retention, selectivity, and resolution of β‐cypermethrin, the effects of chiral stationary phases, cosolvents, mobile phases, and column temperature have been studied in detail. Through a two‐step separation, β‐cypermethrin was firstly separated by using a cellulose‐derived chiral stationary phase to obtain two stereoisomeric pairs, and further resolved on an amylose‐based chiral stationary phase to produce four enantiopure stereoisomers. The electronic circular dichroism patterns of the first‐ and the third‐eluted isomers in methanol solution showed the mirror image of each other in the wavelength range 200∼300 nm, indicating that they were a pair of enantiomers. Moreover, the second‐ and the fourth‐eluted isomers were also enantiomers. This proposed two‐step strategy showed low solvent consumption, fast separation speed, and high‐purity, which may provide an effective approach for preparative separation of compounds with multiple chiral centers and difficult‐to‐separate multicomponent samples.     

Analytical and semi‐preparative enantioresolution of (RS)‐ketorolac from pharmaceutical formulation and in human plasma by HPLC

An efficient, simple, validated, analytical and semi‐preparative HPLC method has been developed for direct enantioresolution of (RS)‐Ketorolac (Ket) using monochloro‐methylated derivatives of cellulose and amylose, i.e. cellulose (tris‐3‐chloro‐4‐methylphenylcarbamate) and amylose (tris‐5‐chloro‐2‐methylphenylcarbamate) as chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with photo diode array detection at 320 nm. Enantioresolution was carried out in samples of human plasma spiked with (RS)‐Ket under normal and reversed‐phase elution modes with suitable mobile phase compositions. The effect of nature of alcohols (MeOH, EtOH, PrOH and n‐BuOH) and other solvents (MeCN and MeOH) as organic modifiers in the mobile phase was investigated on the separation performance of two CSPs in terms of retention and separation of enantiomers. The best resolution was observed on cellulose‐based CSP using EtOH, while using 2‐PrOH (15%) and amylose‐based CSP obtained the highest retention. Under reversed‐phase elution mode the best enantioseparation was observed using 30% MeCN with ammonium formate buffer. The elution order of enantiomers was ascertained by determining specific rotations. The limit of detection and quantitation values were 5 and 15.5 ng/mL for each enantiomer of (RS)‐Ket, respectively. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cellulose tris‐(3,5‐dimethylphenylcarbamate)‐based chiral stationary phase for the enantioseparation of drugs in supercritical fluid chromatography: comparison with HPLC

A cellulose tris‐(3,5‐dimethylphenylcarbamate)‐based chiral stationary phase was studied as a tool for the enantioselective separation of 21 selected analytes with different pharmaceutical and physicochemical properties. The enantioseparations were performed using supercritical fluid chromatography. The effect of the mobile phase composition was studied. Four different additives (diethylamine, triethylamine, isopropylamine, and trifluoroacetic acid) and isopropylamine combined with trifluoroacetic acid were tested and their influence on enantioseparation was compared. The influence of two different mobile phase co‐solvents (methanol and propan‐2‐ol) combined with all the additives was also evaluated. The best mobile phase compositions for the separation of the majority of enantiomers were CO₂/methanol/isopropylamine 80:20:0.1 v/v/v or CO₂/propan‐2‐ol/isopropylamine/trifluoroacetic acid 80:20:0.05:0.05 v/v/v/v. The best results were obtained from the group of basic β‐blockers. A high‐performance liquid chromatography separation system composed of the same stationary phase and mobile phase of similar properties prepared as a mixture of hexane/propan‐2‐ol/additive 80:20:0.1 v/v/v was considered for comparison. Supercritical fluid chromatography was found to yield better results, i.e. better enantioresolution for shorter analysis times than high‐performance liquid chromatography. However, examples of enantiomers better resolved under the optimized conditions in high‐performance liquid chromatography were also found.     

Tetra‐proline‐modified calix[4]arene‐bonded silica stationary phase for simultaneous reversed‐phase/hydrophilic interaction mixed‐mode chromatography

A new water‐soluble tetra‐proline‐modified calix[4]arene‐bonded silica stationary phase was prepared straightforwardly by an indirect method and characterized by elemental analysis, energy dispersive Spectrometry, solid‐state ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Due to the simultaneous introduction of polar tetra‐proline and nonpolar calix[4]arene, the developed column possessing a double retention mode of reverse‐phase liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography. A series of hydrophobic and hydrophilic test samples, including nucleosides and nucleotides, amines, monosubstituted benzenes, chiral compounds, and phenols, were used to evaluate the developed stationary phase. A rapid separation capability, high separation efficiency, and selectivity were achieved based on the multiple interactions between solutes and tetra‐proline‐modified calix[4]arene‐bonded silica stationary phase. Moreover, the developed stationary phase was further used to detect and separate hexamethylenetetramine in rice flour. All the results indicated the potential merits of the developed stationary phase for simultaneous separation of complex hydrophobic and hydrophilic samples with high selectivity.     

Evaluation and Comparison of a 3,5‐Dimethylphenyl Isocyanate Teicoplanin with Phenyl Isocyanate Teicoplanin Chiral Stationary Phase Using RP‐HPLC

HPLC enantiomeric separations of 8 α‐amino acids were achieved using two self‐made chiral stationary phases (CSP)–phenyl isocyanate teicoplanin (Phe‐TE) and 3,5‐dimethylphenyl isocyanate teicoplanin (DMP‐TE), using reversed phase mobile phases. The Phe‐TE or the DMP‐TE CSP was prepared from the TE using derivative agents, phenyl isocyanate or 3,5‐dimethylphenyl isocyanate, respectively. The chromatographic results were given as the retention, selectivity, resolution factor and the enantioselective free energy difference corresponding to the separation of the two enantiomers. The effect of pH, organic modifier type and amount were discussed, and the stereoselectivities for two TE‐based CSPs were compared. The chiral selectivity factor for six α‐amino acids on DMP‐TE is somewhat bigger than that on Phe‐TE CSP under reversed phase (RP) mode. Comparison of the enantiomeric separations using self‐made Phe‐TE and DMP‐TE was conducted to gain a better understanding of the chiral recognition mechanism of the macrocyclic glycopeptide CSP.