Pharmacokinetics and Tissue Distribution of Loratadine, Desloratadine and Their Active Metabolites in Rat based on a Newly Developed LC-MS/MS Analytical Method.

Loratadine (LOR) and its major metabolite, desloratadine (DL) are new-generation antihistamines. The hydroxylated metabolites of them, 6-OH-DL, 5-OH-DL and 3-OH-DL are also active because of their ability to inhibit binding of pyrilamine to brain H1 receptors and a tendency for distributing to specific immune-regulatory tissues. In this study, a new validated LC-MS/MS method to simultaneously quantify LOR, DL, 6-OH-DL, 5-OH-DL and 3-OH-DL in plasma and tissues was established and applied to an investigation of their pharmacokinetics and target-tissue distribution tendency for the first time. Pharmacokinetics parameters in rat were measured and the results suggest that the body's exposure to active metabolites were much higher than to the prodrug with LOR, but much lower with DL. The tissue distribution study shows that LOR, DL and their active metabolites were widely distributed in the liver, spleen, thymus, heart, adrenal glands and pituitary gland. For immune-regulatory tissues, the concentrations of LOR, DL and their active metabolites in the spleen were much higher than in the thymus, which is related to the spleen, one of the sites where immune responses occur. LOR and its metabolites might inhibit immune-mediated allergic inflammation through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. It was also found that the concentration of LOR in the heart was highest after liver and adrenal glands while those of DL, 6-OH-DL and 5-OH-DL in the liver, adrenal glands and spleen were all higher than those in the heart, which suggests that LOR may have a greater tendency to distribute in the heart than its metabolites.

Screening and evaluation of fungal resources for loratadine metabolites.

Loratadine is a selective inverse agonist of peripheral histamine H1-receptors. Microbial biotransformation gained a lot of attention for its ability to convert molecules to valuable medicinally active substances. The main objective of the present research was to investigate the ability of different fungi to biotransform the drug loratadine to its active metabolite desloratadine, because desloratadine is four times more potent, possess longer duration of action than loratadine and is effective at low doses. The screening studies were performed with selected fungi using their respective broth media and sterile incubation conditions. The drug and metabolites formed (if any) were extracted and analysed using HPLC analysis. Structural elucidation and confirmation of metabolites were by mass and proton NMR spectroscopy. Among the six fungi selected, Cunninghamella elegans, Cunninghamella echinulata and Aspergillus niger cultures showed extra peaks at 3.8, 3.6 and 4.1 min, respectively, in HPLC when compared with their controls, which indicated the formation of metabolites. The metabolites thus formed were isolated and their structures were confirmed as dihydroxy desloratadine, desethoxy loratadine and 3-hydroxy desloratadine by Cunninghamella elegans, Cunninghamella echinulata and Aspergillus niger cultures, respectively, by mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. Three fungi were identified to have the ability to biotransform loratadine to its active metabolite and other different metabolites.

Extraction optimization of Loratadine by supramolecular solvent-based microextraction and its determination using HPLC.

Optimization of supramolecular solvent-based microextraction (SSME) of Loratadine and its determination with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultra violet (UV) detection were investigated. A factorial design (FD) and a central composite face-centered (CCF) were applied to evaluate the SSME procedure. The effect of four parameters on extraction efficiency was investigated. The factors studied were decanoic acid amount, percentage of tetrahydrofuran (THF) (v/v), pH and extraction time. According to half factorial design results, the effective parameters were decanoic acid amount, THF percentage (v/v) and pH. Then, a CCF was applied to obtain optimal condition. The optimized conditions were obtained at 110mg of decanoic acid, 10% of THF and pH=3. The limits of detection were in the range of 0.3-0.4ng/ml. Linearity of the method was determined to be in the range of 1.0-400.0ng/ml for distilled water and 1.3-400.0ng/ml for plasma. The extraction recovery was >92%. RSD for intra and inter day (n=5) of extraction of Loratadine were 3.1% and 6.2%, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied for the determination of Loratadine in distilled water and plasma samples.

Molecularly imprinted nano particles combined with miniaturized homogenous liquid-liquid extraction for the selective extraction of loratadine in plasma and urine samples followed by high performance liquid chromatography-photo diode array detection.

In this work a molecularly imprinted polymer was developed as a selective sorbent for extraction of loratadine (as a model) in complex matrices followed by miniaturized homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction (MHLLE) for the first time. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) which is based on loratadine as the template was synthesized successfully by precipitation polymerization and was used as a selective sorbent. This technique was applied for preconcentration, sample preparation, and determination of loratadine using high performance liquid chromatography-photo diode array detection (HPLC-PDA). Optimization of various parameters affecting molecular imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE), such as pH of adsorption, composition and volume of eluent, adsorption and desorption times were investigated. Besides, in the subsequent stage (MHLLE) the type and volume of extraction solvent, sodium hydroxide amount, surfactant concentration, and extraction time were investigated and optimized. Under the optimal condition, maximum enrichment capacity and Langmuir constant were 91mgg(-1) and 0.014Lmg(-1), respectively. Furthermore, enrichment factor and extraction recovery of MIP-MHLLE method were 30 and 90%, respectively. The LOD of the proposed method was 0.2µgL(-1) and a linear dynamic range of 1-1000µgL(-1) was obtained with correlation coefficient of greater than 0.998. The present method was applied for extraction and determination of loratadine in plasma and urine samples in µgL(-1) levels and satisfactory results were achieved (RSD <8% based on three replicate measurements).

A compatibility study of a secondary amine active pharmaceutical ingredient with starch: identification of a novel degradant formed between desloratadine and a starch impurity using LC-MS(n) and NMR spectroscopy.

Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) containing primary and secondary amine moieties have been extensively studied for their potential incompatibility with monosaccharides and disaccharides containing a reducing end such as glucose, lactose, and maltose because of the undesirable interaction between the amine and aldehyde functionalities. Compatibility studies of these APIs with olysaccharides such as starch are much less common. During a recent compatibility study between starch and desloratadine, an API that contains a secondary amine functional group, we observed a novel degradant formed between desloratadine and a previously unidentified starch impurity in addition to an Amadori degradant formed between desloratadine and maltose, a known starch impurity. An approach that combines liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS(n)) analysis, stress studies, and comprehensive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses was used to identify this novel degradant. On the basis of the structure determined by NMR spectroscopy and the results from the stress studies, a degradation mechanism is proposed to account for the formation of this novel degradant through the reaction of desloratadine with an isomer of acetylformoin, an impurity of polysaccharide origin. Because starch is a very common excipient used in solid dosage formulations, the results of this compatibility study should facilitate pharmaceutical development involving secondary amine APIs and starch.

An accurate-mass-based spectral-averaging isotope-pattern-filtering algorithm for extraction of drug metabolites possessing a distinct isotope pattern from LC-MS data.

Detection and identification (ID) of all drug metabolites following liquid chromatography (LC)/mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of complex biological matrixes are not trivial. To facilitate detection of drug-derived materials that possess highly diagnostic isotopic patterns (e.g., chlorine- and bromine-containing compounds), we report an accurate-mass-based spectral-averaging isotope-pattern-filtering (AMSA-IPF) algorithm developed in the computational language R. The AMSA-IPF algorithm offers three significant improvements over the traditional isotope filtering method often provided by instrument vendors. First, spectral averaging is performed before the IPF to reduce scan-to-scan variability of ion intensities. Second, the IPF process is strictly based on accurate mass typically obtained on high resolution mass spectrometers. The designated isotopic ion-pairs (e.g., M + 2:M or M + 1:M, where M is the molecular ion and M + 1 and M + 2 are the isotopic ions) must fall into the predefined accurate mass tolerance window (e.g., 5 ppm) and at the same time satisfy the predefined relative abundance criteria. Third, both M + 1:M and M + 2:M ion pairs are inspected in the filtering process. The inclusion of M + 1:M ion pair enhanced the specificity of this algorithm by removing background ions that form M:M + 2 ion pairs within predefined isotope ratios by coincidence. The algorithm demonstrated excellent effectiveness in detecting drug-related ions in in vivo samples (plasma, bile, urine and feces) obtained from rats orally dosed with 14C-loratadine. The ion chromatograms of the filtered LC-MS data files showed near perfect qualitative correlation with the corresponding radioprofiles. AMSA-IPF will be another great tool to facilitate detection and ID of drug metabolites in complex LC-MS data without the help of radiolabels. The AMSA-IPF algorithm is applicable to not only compounds containing distinct natural isotopes (such as Cl and Br) but also compounds that contain synthetically incorporated isotopes (13C, 15N, etc) generating a distinct isotope pattern. The ability to detect and identify metabolites from nonradiolabeled studies will be extremely beneficial to achieve compliance with FDA's most recent guidance on metabolites in safety testing (MIST).

Determination of loratadine in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatographic method with ultraviolet detection.

A HPLC-UV determination of loratadine in human plasma is presented. After simple liquid-liquid extraction with 2-methylbutane-hexane (2:1) and evaporation of organic phase the compounds were re-dissolved in 0.01 M HCl, evaporated again and finally separated on a Supelcosil LC-18-DB column. The analyses were done at ambient temperature under isocratic conditions using the mobile phase: CH3CN-water-0.5 M KH2PO4-H3PO4 (440:480:80:1, v/v). UV detection was performed at 200 nm with a limit of quantification of 0.5 ng/ml. The precision was found to be satisfactory over the whole range tested (0.5-50 ng/ml) with relative standard deviations of 2.3-6.3 and 5.2-14.1% for intra- and inter-assays, respectively.