Theoretical approaches to physical transformations of active pharmaceutical ingredients during manufacturing processes.

Processing-induced transformations (PITs) during pharmaceutical manufacturing are well known but difficult to predict and often difficult to control. This review of the concepts of transformations is couched in terms of the issues associated with identifying rate-controlling events from the materials side and the processing side. Specifically, the approach is reconciling the characteristic time scale of the structural change(s) in the material with the time scale of the processing-induced stress. This is definitely a model (or rather a melding of a group of existing theories) in development. This overview is a 'snapshot' of the authors' attempts to identify the categories of existing theories needed to encompass all of the relevant events for each possible PIT. The ultimate goal is to establish a framework of concepts and theories for consideration, discussion, and modeling of PITs as well as to locate much of the relevant literature in the framework.

Properties of the nucleic acid photoaffinity labeling agent 3-azidoamsacrine.

This paper reports the study of the photochemical, physical, and biological properties of 3-azidoamsacrine. The binding of 3-azidoamsacrine to DNA was studied with UV spectroscopy. The UV spectral behavior is quite similar to that of the parent amsacrine and argues that 3-azidoamsacrine is a good photoaffinity labeling agent for amsacrine. The biological properties (cytotoxicity and mutagenicity) of 3-azidoamsacrine in the mammalian mutagenesis V79 and L5178Y assay systems were measured. Light-activated 3-azidoamsacrine is toxic, but not mutagenic, to V79 cells. 3-Azidoamsacrine with and without light activation, as well as amsacrine, are toxic and mutagenic to L5178Y cells. To probe the interactions of 3-azidoamsacrine with DNA, studies of the photoreactivity of this compound were conducted. 3-Azidoamsacrine was photolyzed in the presence of the plasmid pBR322, and the effect of the photoadducts on restriction endonuclease cleavage was investigated. Amsacrine and 3-azidoamsacrine, without light activation, did not block any of the restriction endonucleases. Light-activated 3-azidoamsacrine blocked cleavage by the restriction endonucleases AluI, HinfI, NciI, NaeI, DraI, Sau96I, HpaII, and HaeIII. Photolysis experiments with mononucleosides, blocked mononucleosides, dinucleotides, and DNA all indicated that 3-azidoamsacrine formed adducts with G and A. The structures of these adducts are discussed based upon mass spectral data. Thus, it appears that 3-azidoamsacrine covalently attaches to DNA and that this covalent binding results in the production of toxic and, in some cases, mutagenic lesions in mammalian cells and the inhibition of restriction endonuclease cleavage of DNA.

Hydration and dehydration of crystalline and amorphous forms of raffinose.

The trisaccharide raffinose was prepared in its crystal pentahydrate, anhydrous methanolate, and amorphous forms and evaluated with regard to dehydration and hydration properties at various temperatures and relative humidities. The pentahydrate, when stored at relative humidities (RHs) of < 60% but > 10%, showed no loss of water after 3 months of storage at 30 degrees C. When stored below 10% RH, only one water molecule could be removed over a period of 3 months, whereas within 24 h at 30 degrees C in a vacuum oven, two water molecules were removed with no change in crystal structure. Increasing the temperature to 60 degrees C progressively removed the remaining three molecules, causing the crystal, however, to collapse into an amorphous form identical to one prepared by lyophilization. Rehydration at 30 degrees C, which was sufficient to reduce the glass transition temperature to < 30 degrees C, rapidly restored the pentahydrate crystal structure. Rehydration of the methanolate also restored the pentahydrate structure. The significant amount of water accommodated by raffinose in both the crystalline and amorphous forms would appear to make it a potentially useful water scavenger in certain types of dosage forms.

Solid-state investigations of erythromycin A dihydrate: structure, NMR spectroscopy, and hygroscopicity.

The crystal structures of the commercially available form of erythromycin A dihydrate and clarithromycin anhydrate, in addition to the structure of erythromycin B dihydrate, are reported in this paper. In light of the crystallographic data, analysis of the structural information provides insight into the physical properties of these pharmaceuticals. The propensity of these pharmaceuticals to form solvated structures is discussed and the hygroscopicity of erythromycin A dihydrate is investigated. Solid-state 13C NMR was used to monitor changes that occur when the dihydrate form of erythromycin A is stored under conditions of low relative humidity. Although erythromycin A dihydrate retains its crystallographic order at low humidity, as indicated by its X-ray powder diffraction pattern, the local chemical environment is dramatically influenced by the loss of the water molecules and results in dramatic changes in its solid-state 13C NMR spectrum.

Conformational color polymorphism and control of crystallization of 5-methyl-2-[(4-methyl-2-nitrophenyl)amino]-3-thiophenecarbonitrile.

5-Methyl-2-[(4-methyl-2-nitrophenyl)amino]-3-thiophenecarbonitrile is an example of conformational and color polymorphism. The compound crystallizes in red (R), dark red (DR), light red (LR), and orange (O) modifications. There are two specific goals for this study. One is to characterize the complex thermodynamic relationship among these four known forms, and the other is to use the knowledge of the thermodynamic relationship to control the crystallization of these forms. The different forms were characterized by X-ray powder diffractometry as well as Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy; their complex thermodynamic relationships were determined by thermal analysis, solubility measurements, and slurry conversion studies. According to the solubility results, all forms are enantiotropically related: R is the thermodynamically most stable form above 60 degrees C, O is the most stable form between room temperature and 60 degrees C, LR is the most stable form below -15 degrees C, and DR is metastable throughout the entire temperature range. DR, LR, and O have very similar free energy at ambient temperature, which is the reason for the complex transition behavior. Finally, a schematic energy-temperature diagram was constructed that combines all experimental data in a comprehensive thermodynamic picture and provides insights into how to control the crystallization of the individual forms.

Structural characterization of a metal-based perfusion tracer: copper(II) pyruvaldehyde bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone).

Copper(II) pyruvaldehyde bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone), Cu(PTSM), has been obtained as a dark red crystalline solid from EtOH-DMSO solvent mixture and structurally characterized by x-ray crystallography. The molecule possesses the expected pseudo-square planar N2S2 metal coordination sphere; however, the copper center also interacts through its axial coordination site with the sulfur atom of an adjacent Cu(PTSM) molecule in the crystal lattice. The structure of this compound is compared with the structures of other metal complexes that have been proposed in the nuclear medicine literature as perfusion tracers.

Accelerated fluid bed drying using NIR monitoring and phenomenological modeling.

A "fast-drying" method to accelerate the fluid bed drying process is presented. It relies on concepts of heat and mass transfer with real-time near-infrared (NIR) monitoring of moisture. Triplicate trials show that fast drying can reduce granulation drying time by half over single-temperature cycles. The product is equivalent in every way tested to material made using a conventional cycle even though the inlet temperature throughout the constant-rate stage was higher than the melting point of the compound. Tablets made from the fast-dried granulation exhibit equivalent physical characteristics to tablets made from granulations dried at a single, lower temperature.

Sequence specific cleavage of messenger RNA by a modified ribonuclease H.

Ribonuclease H (RNase H) is an endonuclease that cleaves only the RNA strand of an RNA-DNA hybrid to produce 5'-phosphate and 3'-hydroxy termini and lacks useful sequence specific recognition properties. A mutant form of the E. coli enzyme has been prepared that is suited for selective chemical modification at a site proximal to the substrate binding region. The chemical derivatization involves the formation of a disulfide linkage to a modified octadeoxyribonucleotide. The conjugate retains only 0.3% of the normal sequence independent RNase H activity demonstrating that substrate recognition can be modulated by a covalent appendage. A beta-globin RNA transcript containing a sequence complementary to that of the octadeoxyribonucleotide was cleaved in a catalytic fashion to two products upon treatment with the conjugate. The selectivity in the phosphodiester bond cleavage mediated by the conjugate was found to be different than that displayed by the nonderivatized enzyme. These results demonstrate the potential of semi-synthetic RNase H conjugates for mechanistic studies and their application as RNA targeted diagnostic or therapeutic agents.