Evaluation of the immobilized artificial membrane phosphatidylcholine: Drug discovery column for high-performance liquid chromatographic screening of drug–membrane interactions

Chromatographic retention factors (k′) of a series of eight β-adrenoceptor antagonist compounds (β-adrenolytic drugs) were determined employing an immobilized artificial membrane column (IAM.PC.DD). The influence of mobile phase pH, ionic strength, and organic modifier composition was studied in order to examine column performance. After the IAM.PC.DD columns were exposed to approximately 7000 column volumes of a 0.01 M PBS mobile phase, five out of six columns tested showed significant peak broadening and decreased k′ values indicative of premature column failure. The data suggested that the immobilized phospholipids stationary phase was removed by the 0.01 M PBS mobile phase. The β-adrenolytic drug's log k′_IAM values obtained with an IAM.PC.DD column were compared to an ^esterIAM.PC.MG column for predicting drug membrane interactions. For the linear regression analysis between log k′_IAM and the logarithm of the n-octanol–water partition coefficients (r_IAM.PC.DD=0.8710 vs. r_IAM.PC.MG=0.9538), the C₁₈ HPLC retention factors (r_IAM.PC.DD=0.8408 vs. r_IAM.PC.MG=0.9380), the liposome partition coefficients (r_IAM.PC.DD=0.8887 vs. r_IAM.PC.MG=0.9187), and various pharmacokinetic parameters, significantly better correlations were obtained with the ^esterIAM.PC.MG column than the IAM.PC.DD column.