Quantitative analysis of finasteride tablets dissolution content with non-isotopically labeled internal standard by paper spray ionization mass spectrometry.

Paper spray ionization, one of the ambient mass spectrometry technologies, has been developed to characterize the content of drugs in various complex matrixes including urine, whole blood, dissolution solutions, and so on. An isotopically labeled compound as internal standard is often used in quantitative paper spray ionization experiments. But high cost and difficult to access impede the application of this type of internal standards. Application of non-isotopically labeled compounds as internal standards will make this technology more prevalent. In this paper, we explored the application of finasteride impurity as the internal standard in paper spray ionization-mass spectrometry to measure the dissolution content of finasteride tablets. The new method was optimized and the results were compared to those from high-performance liquid chromatography. The whole analysis time was several minutes and limit of detection for finasteride was around 4.8 ng/mL. The results from paper spray ionization-mass spectrometry were similar to those from high-performance liquid chromatography. Combination of paper spray ionization-mass spectrometry and non-isotopically labeled internal standard renders a new method to analyze drug dissolution content with high specificity, low limit of detection, and simple sample preparation within short time period.

Stability Study of Finasteride: Stability-Indicating LC Method, In Silico and LC-ESI-MS Analysis of Major Degradation Product, and an In Vitro Biological Safety Study.

Stability studies of the pharmaceutically important compound finasteride were conducted in order to evaluate decomposition of the drug under forced degradation conditions. A simple stability-indicating liquid chromatography method was developed and validated for the evaluation of finasteride and degradation products formed in pharmaceutical preparations and the raw material. Isocratic LC separation was achieved on a C18 column using a mobile phase of o-phosphoric acid (0.1% v/v), adjusted to pH 2.8 with triethylamine (10% v/v) and acetonitrile (52:48 v/v), with a flow rate of 1.0 mL min-1. The alkaline degradation kinetics of the drug were also evaluated and could be best described as second-order kinetics under the experimental conditions applied for the tablets and raw material. Based on in silico studies and molecular weight confirmation, a comprehensive degradation pathway for the drug and the identity of its major product could be suggested without complicated isolation or purification processes. Furthermore, a biological safety study was performed to evaluate the effect of the degraded sample in relation to the intact molecule. The results showed that the degraded sample affected the cell proliferation. Therefore, these studies show that special care must be taken during the manipulation, manufacture and storage of this pharmaceutical drug.

Development and validation of rapid and simultaneous method for determination of 12 hair-growth compounds in adulterated products by UHPLC-MS/MS.

Synthetic hair-growth compounds have been illegally used in diverse products to enhance the short-term efficacy of these products. In this study, a rapid and simultaneous method for the determination of hair-growth compounds in adulterated products based on ultra high pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) was developed and validated. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQs) of the method were 0.08-43.6ng/mL and 0.27-145ng/mL for the solid-, liquid-, and cream-type samples, respectively. Good calibration linearity for all compounds was demonstrated with a correlation coefficient (r2) higher than 0.997. The intra- and inter-assay precisions were within 11%. The corresponding accuracies were 86-117% and 81-113%, respectively. The mean recoveries obtained for the solid-, liquid, and cream-type samples ranged from 87 to 114%, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) within 6%. The RSD of the stability evaluated at 4°C for 48h was less than 6%. The established method was used to screen 76 samples advertised as hair-growth treatments, from online and offline markets, over the course of two years. In 10% of the samples, four compounds, including triaminodil, minoxidil, finasteride, methyltestosterone, and testosterone-propionate were detected. The concentrations were in the range of 0.5-16.4mg/g. This technique provides a reliable platform for technical analysis for continuous monitoring of adulterated products to protect public health.

Determination of illegal adulteration of dietary supplements with synthetic hair-growth compounds by UPLC and LC-Q-TOF/MS.

In this study, we developed a UPLC-PDA and LC-Q-TOF/MS method to identify and measure the following prohibited substances that may be found in dietary supplements:triaminodil, minoxidil, bimatoprost, alimemazine, diphenylcyclopropenone, α-tradiol, finasteride, methyltestosterone, spironolatone, flutamide, cyproterone, dutasteride, and testosterone 17-propionate.The method was validated according to International Conference on Harmonization guidelines in terms of specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD, LOQ, recovery, and stability. The method was completely validated showing satisfactory data for all method validation parameters. The linearity was good (R2 > 0.999) with intra- and inter-day precision values of 0.2-3.4% and 0.3-2.9%, respectively. Moreover, the intra- and inter-day accuracies were 87-102% and 86-103%, respectively, and the precision was better than 9.4% (relative standard deviation).Hence, the proposed method is precise and has high quality,and can be utilised to comprehensively and continually monitor illegal drug adulteration in various forms of dietary supplements. Furthermore, to evaluate the applicability of the proposed method, we analysed 13 hair-growth compounds in 78 samples including food and dietary supplements. Minoxidil and triaminodil were detected in capsules at concentrations of 4.69 mg/g and 6.54 mg/g. In addition, finasteride was detected in a tablet at 13.45 mg/g. In addition, the major characteristic fragment ions were confirmed once again using LC-Q-TOF/MS for higher accuracy.

Comprehensive spectroscopic characterization of finasteride polymorphic forms. Does the form X exist?

The pure polymorphic forms I, II, and III of finasteride were prepared and their purity was confirmed by FTIR, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray powder diffraction measurements. The preparation experiments demonstrated that the desolvation process of some finasteride solvates does result not only in the formation of polymorphic forms I and II, but also in obtaining the pure form III. The (13)C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CP-MAS) and the (15)N CP-MAS spectra can distinguish all three polymorphic forms of finasteride. Additionally, the data point to the presence of only one molecule in crystallographic asymmetric unit of polymorphic forms I and III and two molecules in the form II. The application of electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy for finasteride polymorphic forms shows that the three polymorphs could be distinguished by the characteristic shapes of their VCD spectra in the spectral range 1520-1440 cm(-1). The ECD spectral patterns of all these forms, however, are almost indistinguishable because of their close similarity. Comparison of the (13)C CP-MAS spectra of forms I, II, and III with those reported in the literature indicates that the so-called finasteride "form X" is identical to the previously known finasteride form III. On this basis, the existence of form X was excluded.

Quality evaluation of the Finasteride polymorphic forms I and II in capsules.

Finasteride (FNS) is a specific competitive inhibitor of steroid type-II 5α-reductase and is widely used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer, and androgenetic alopecia. FNS has two polymorphic forms identified as Form I and Form II. It is known that polymorphism can cause significant differences in the physicochemical properties of a compound such as melting point, density, morphology, solubility, and color. Thus, proper qualitative and quantitative monitoring of the solid-state forms is crucial to ensure high-quality products. There are no published papers studying the influence of the FNS polymorphs on the physicochemical quality of capsules. Furthermore, the available analytical methods are time-consuming, expensive, use buffer or do not demonstrate stability-indicating capacity. The aim of this work was to validate a rapid high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method to evaluate FNS in capsules and to study the physicochemical properties of polymorphic forms, evaluating their possible influence in the dissolution profile and stability of FNS in capsules. Capsules containing Forms I and II of FNS were prepared and subjected to quality control studies, dissolution profiles and a stability study at 50°C. A significant effect of polymorphism on the FNS solubility and dissolution properties was observed. These results suggest that changes in the effects of FNS can occur if a suitable control study is not performed on the raw material used to produce the capsules.

A validated RP-HPLC method to investigate finasteride in human skin after in vitro topically applying vesicular nanocarrier.

The pharmacotherapeutic efficiency of topical drug delivery systems is mainly dominated by the skin distribution of therapeutic agents. In this work, a sensitive, rapid and fully-validated reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was developed to determine finasteride in human cadaver skin after different vesicular formulations were applied. Drug in different depth of skin layers were measured with an EclipseXDB-C18 column. The mobile phase consisted of 75% (v/v) methanol containing 0.2% phosphoric acid buffered to pH 3.0 with triethylamine under isocratic conditions. The system was operated at 40°C and the mobile phase flow rate was set at 1 mL/min. The standard-calibration curve was linear within range of 5 to 200 ng/ml with correlation coefficient 0.9996. The intra-assay precision was less than 3.9% while the inter-assay precision was less than 7.1% with the bias range of -8.6 to 4.1%. This method was found to be specific, accurate, and sensitive and was successfully used to determine the accumulation of finasteride after in-vitro percutaneous delivery by liposomal or ethosomal drug delivery nanocarriers.

High-resolution mass spectrometric investigation of the phase I and II metabolites of finasteride in pig plasma, urine and bile.

1. The metabolite profile of the 5α-reductase type II inhibitor finasteride has been studied in pig plasma, urine and bile using high-resolution mass spectrometry. The porcine biotransformation products were compared to those formed by human liver microsomes and to literature data of recently identified human in vivo metabolites. The objective of this study was to gain further evidence for the validity of using pigs for advanced, invasive drug-drug interaction studies that are not possible to perform in humans. 2. The use of high-resolution mass spectrometry with accurate mass measurements enabled identification of the metabolites by calculation of their elemental compositions as well as their fragmentation patterns. 3. There was an excellent match between the porcine and human metabolic profiles, corroborating the pig as a model of human drug metabolism. The glucuronides of the two recently described human hydroxylated metabolites MX and MY and the carboxylated metabolite M3 were identified as the major biotransformation products of finasteride in pig urine and bile. 4. Furthermore, the CYP enzymes involved in the formation of the hydroxylated metabolites were characterized. Human recombinant CYP3A4 could produce the two major hydroxylated metabolites MX and MY, whereas human recombinant CYP2D6 formed MY only.

Development and validation of an UPLC method for determination of content uniformity in low-dose solid drugs products using the design space approach.

A simple and reproducible UPLC method was developed and validated for the quantitative analysis of finasteride in low-dose drug products. Method validation demonstrated the reliability and consistency of analytical results. Due to the regulatory requirements of pharmaceutical analysis in particular, evaluation of robustness is vital to predict how small variations in operating conditions affect the responses. Response surface methodology as an optimization technique was used to evaluate the robustness. For this, a central composite design was implemented around the nominal conditions. Statistical treatment of the responses (retention factor and drug concentrations expressed as percentage of label claim) showed that methanol content in mobile-phase and flow rate were the most influential factors. In the optimization process, the compromise decision support problem (cDSP) strategy was used. Construction of the robust domain from response-surfaces provided tolerance windows for the factors affecting the effectiveness of the method. The specified limits for the USP uniformity of dosage units assay (98.5-101.5%) and the purely experimental variations based on the repeatability test for center points (nominal conditions repetitions) were used as criteria to establish the tolerance windows, which allowed definition design space (DS) of analytical method. Thus, the acceptance criteria values (AV) proposed by the USP-uniformity of assay only depend on the sampling error. If the variation in the responses corresponded to approximately twice the repeatability standard deviation, individual values for percentage label claim (%LC) response may lie outside the specified limits; this implies the data are not centered between the specified limits, and that this term plus the sampling error affects the AV value. To avoid this fact, the limits specified by the Uniformity of Dosage Form assay (i.e., 98.5-101.5%) must be taken into consideration to fix the tolerance windows for each factor. All these results were verified by the Monte Carlo simulation. In conclusion, the level of variability for different factors must be calculated for each case, and not arbitrary way, provided a variation is found higher than the repeatability for center points and secondly, the %LC response must lie inside the specified limits i.e., 98.5-101.5%. If not the UPLC method must be re-developed.

Three isostructural solvates of finasteride and their solid-state characterization.

Three crystalline hemi-hydrate, channel solvates (classified as solvates from here on) of finasteride (N-(1,1-di-methylethyl)-3-oxo-4-aza-5 alpha-androst-1-ene-17beta-carboxamide) have been obtained and fully characterized. The acetone, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and toluene solvates of finasteride, described herein, were found to be isostructural and belong as additional members to a family of previously reported finasteride solvates. Vacuum drying at 85 degrees C for 1 day produced the metastable, anhydrous Form II of finasteride from all three solvated materials.

Identification of finasteride metabolites in human bile and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

The objective of this study was to further investigate the metabolism of the 5alpha-reductase inhibitor, finasteride, and to identify previously unknown phase I and phase II metabolites in vitro and in vivo in human bile and urine. Healthy volunteers were given 5 mg of finasteride, directly to the intestine, and bile and urine were collected for 3 and 24 h, respectively. A single-pass perfusion technique, Loc-I-Gut, was used for drug administration and bile collection from the proximal jejunum, distal to papilla of Vater. Incubations with human liver microsomes/S9 fractions and different cofactors were performed with finasteride and the previously known metabolites, omega-hydroxy finasteride (M1) and finasteride-omega-oic acid (M3). Liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS) with positive/negative electrospray ionization and ion trap with MS(n) measurements were used for structural investigations and identification of metabolites. Two hydroxy metabolites of finasteride, other than M1, and one intact hydroxy finasteride glucuronide were identified in vitro and in bile and urine. The glucuronide and at least one of the hydroxy metabolites were previously unidentified. M1 and M3 were glucuronidated in vitro by specific human UDP-glucuronosyltransferases, UGT1A4 and UGT1A3, respectively. M1 glucuronide was not identified in vivo, and M3 glucuronide, an acyl glucuronide, was present in low amounts in bile from a few individuals. In conclusion, previously undescribed metabolites were identified, in vitro and in human urine and bile. Bile collection using the Loc-I-Gut technique followed by sensitive mass spectrometry analysis led to the discovery of novel, both phase I and phase II, finasteride metabolites in human bile.

Voltammetric reduction of finasteride at mercury electrode and its determination in tablets.

Finasteride in hydroalcoholic solutions (ethanol/Britton-Robinson buffer, 30/70) exhibits cathodic response in a wide range of pH (-0.5 to 12) using differential pulse (DPP) and test polarography (TP). The reduction peak of finasteride at acidic pH, is a catalytic proton peak resulting from a mechanism involving a first protonation of finasteride followed by the reduction of the protons combined with finasteride in order to regenerate finasteride and liberate hydrogen. Based on the catalytic hydrogen wave, a novel method for the determination of finasteride can be proposed. For analytical purposes we selected DPP technique in an ethanol/0.0625 mol L(-1) H(2)SO(4) (30/70) solution medium. In this condition the I(p) varied linearly with finasteride concentration between 5 x 10(-5) and 5 x 10(-4) mol L(-1). Within-day and inter-day reproducibility's were adequate with R.S.D. values lower than 2%. The selectivity of the method was checked with both accelerated degradation trials and typical excipients formulations. The developed method was applied to the assay and the uniformity content of finasteride tablets and compared with the standard HPLC method. The DPP-developed method was adequate for the finasteride determination in pharmaceutical forms as that exhibited an adequate accuracy, reproducibility and selectivity. Furthermore, treatment of the sample was not required as in HPLC; the method is not time-consuming and less expensive than the HPLC ones.

Doping-control analysis of the 5alpha-reductase inhibitor finasteride: determination of its influence on urinary steroid profiles and detection of its major urinary metabolite.

5alpha-Reductase inhibitors such as finasteride are prohibited in sports according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. This class of drugs is used therapeutically to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, as well as male baldness, by decreasing 5alpha-reductase activity. Accordingly, metabolic pathways of endogenous as well as synthetic steroids are influenced, which complicates the evaluation of steroid profiles in sports drug testing. The possibility of manipulating steroid excretion profiles and, presumably, to mask steroid abuse was investigated in 5 administration studies with use of finasteride at different doses, with and without coadministration of 19-norandrostenedione. The evaluation of urinary steroid profiles demonstrated the intense effect of finasteride on numerous crucial analytical parameters, in particular the production of 5alpha-steroids such as androsterone and 5alpha-androstane-3alpha,17beta-diol, which was significantly reduced. In addition, the excretion of the main metabolite of norandrostenedione, norandrosterone, was significantly suppressed, by up to 84%, in elimination studies. For doping-control analysis the use of 5alpha-reductase inhibitors causes considerable problems because steroid profile parameters, which are commonly considered stable, are highly affected and complicate the detection of steroid abuse. In addition, the suppression of production and renal excretion of 5alpha-steroids such as 19-norandrosterone generated from anabolic agents such as 19-norandrostenedione may lead to false-negative doping-control results, because urine specimens are reported positive only when a threshold level of 2 ng/mL is exceeded. Finally, a method for the determination of the major urinary metabolite of finasteride (carboxy-finasteride) in routine doping-control screening with use of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry is described, allowing the detection of carboxy-finasteride for up to 94 hours in urine specimens collected after an oral administration of 5 mg of finasteride.

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of finasteride in tablets.

A simple, rapid, accurate, precise and sensitive colorimetric method for the determination of finasteride in tablets is described. The proposed methods are based on the formation of ion-pair complexes between the examined drug with bromophenol blue (BPB), bromocresol green (BCG) and bromothymol blue (BTB), which can be measured at the optimum lambda(max). Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 3.0-15.0, 3.0-15.0 and 5.0-20 microg/mL with BPB, BCG and BTB, respectively. The detection limits of FIN was found to be 1.16 microg/mL for BPB, 1.17 for BCG, 1.76 microg/mL for BTB. All the methods gave similar results and were validated for selectivity, linearity, precision and sensitivity. The proposed methods were directly and easily applied to the pharmaceutical preparation with accuracy, resulting from recovery experiments between 100.11 and 100.33% for BPB, 100.17 and 100.67% for BCG and 100.33 and 100.60% for BTB methods. The low relative standard deviation values indicate good precision and high recovery values indicate accuracy of the proposed methods. The proposed methods have been applied to the determination of drug in commercial tablets. Results obtained from the analysis of commercial preparations with the proposed methods are in good agreement with those obtained with the official HPLC method.

Development and validation of a new gas flame ionization detector method for the determination of finasteride in tablets.

A simple, rapid, and sensitive method based on gas chromatography with flame ionization detection is described for the determination of finasteride in tablets. The method is based on the derivatization of finasteride with N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide-1% trimethylchlorosilane at 60 degrees C for 30 min. The method was validated for specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, robustness, and limit of quantification. The degree of linearity of the calibration curves, the percentage recoveries of finasteride, and the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for the gas chromatographic method were determined. The assay was linear over the concentration range of 10 to 50 microg ml(-1) (R approximately 0.999). LOQ and LOD (signal/noise ratio = 10) were found to be 10 and 2 microg ml(-1), respectively. The method was found to be simple, specific, precise, accurate, and reproducible. All of the validation parameters were within the acceptance range. The developed method was applied successfully to estimate the amount of finasteride in tablets. The results were compared statistically with those obtained by the official method using t and F tests. There was no significant difference between the two methods with respect to mean values and standard deviations at the 95% confidence level.

Polarographic behavior and determination of finasteride.

The polarographic behavior of finasteride at the dropping mercury electrode (DME) was studied adopting direct current (DC(t)), alternating current (AC(t)) and differential-pulse polarography (DPP) modes. In Britton-Robinson buffer (BRb), finasteride exhibited cathodic waves over the pH range 6-12. At pH 10, a well-defined cathodic wave was obtained. The latter could be characterized as being irreversible, diffusion-controlled and partially affected by adsorption phenomenon. The number of electrons involved in the reduction process was accomplished and a proposal of the electrode reaction was presented. The current-concentration plots were rectilinear over the ranges 8-40 and 2-30 microg ml(-1) using DC(t) and DPP modes, respectively. The minimum delectability was 0.2 microg ml(-1) (5.4 x 10(-7) M), for the latter. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of finasteride in its commercial capsules and the results obtained were in good agreement with those given with a reference method.

LC determination of finasteride and its application to storage stability studies.

The development of a simple, sensitive, rapid, and reproducible reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic assay of finasteride (proscar) in preformulation, and its application to forced degradation studies has been carried out. The method showed excellent linearity (r2 > or = 0.9997) in the range 20-600 microg x ml(-1) using a Shimpak C8 column (5 microm, 15.0 cm x 4.6 mm) and UV-detection (210 nm) at ambient temperature (25 +/-1 degree C) with a mobile phase of acetonitrile and water (95:05,v/v) and flow rate of 0.7 ml x min(-1). All peaks are eluted in < 10 min and the method has good precision. This method showed good efficiency for the analysis of forced degraded samples, studied at different temperatures and humidities. The results manifest that the shelf-life of proscar is greater than two years at room temperature, under proper storage conditions.

Picogram determination of finasteride in human plasma and semen by high-performance liquid chromatography with atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization tandem mass spectrometry.

A method based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with atmospheric-pressure positive-ion chemical ionization (APCI)-tandem mass spectrometric (MS-MS) detection for the determination of finasteride (MK-906, I) in human plasma and semen has been developed. The drug and internal standard (II) were extracted from biological matrices using a single solid-phase cyano cartridge. The eluent from the cartridge was injected directly onto the a 33 x 4.6 mm I.D. C18, 3-microns column coupled with a base deactivated C18 20 x 4.6 mm I.D., 5-microns guard column. The column eluate was passed into the corona discharge APCI source by means of a heated nebulizer interface. The analyte and its internal standard were detected using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode for enhanced selectivity and sensitivity. The chromatographic run time was 3 min, and the method had sufficient sensitivity, precision, accuracy and selectivity for the analysis of clinical samples containing finasteride at concentration of 0.2 ng/ml. The assay methodology confirms the versatility of APCI-MS-MS detection, combined with HPLC, for the quantitation of selected drugs in the sub-ng/ml range in biological fluids.

Radioimmunoassay for the testosterone 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor turosteride in biological fluids.

An antiserum against turosteride (code name FCE 26073), a potent testosterone 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor, has been raised in rabbits by immunization with an immunogen produced by conjugation of a derivative of FCE 26073 (FCE 27424) to bovine serum albumin. The antiserum was able to distinguish FCE 26073 from its derivatives modified at the 17 beta position and from all the endogenous steroids tested. A radioimmunoassay for the determination of FCE 26073 in human plasma and urine was developed using this antiserum and tritium labeled turosteride. FCE 26073 was extracted from 50 microliters of plasma or 25 microliters of urine using ethyl-ether with a recovery greater than 90%. Using this procedure it was possible to achieve a final limit of quantitation of 142 pg/ml in plasma and 284 pg/ml in urine. The assay was validated in terms of reproducibility, accuracy and precision in the range 3.9-250 pg/50 microliters of plasma and 25 microliters of urine. The plasma concentration of FCE 26073 in a healthy male volunteer who received 0.2 mg of the drug was measured using the radioimmunoassay.