Synthesis of magnetic nanoparticle-based molecularly imprinted polymer as a selective sorbent for efficient extraction of ezetimibe from biological samples.

In the present study, a novel and efficient adsorbent constructed of molecularly imprinted polymer on the surface of modified magnetic nanoparticles with oleic acid (MNPs) was applied for the selective extraction of ezetimibe. The magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MMIP) was polymerized at the surface of modified MNPs using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ezetimibe as template and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker. The resulting MMIP showed high adsorption capacity, good selectivity and fast kinetic binding for the template molecule. It was characterized by Fourier transform infrared analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy methods. The maximum adsorption capacity of MMIP was obtained as 137.1 mg g-1 and it took about 20 min to achieve the equilibrium state. The adsorption model of the adsorbent was fitted with the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm equations. The assay exhibited a linear range of 0.003-20.000 mg L-1 for ezetimibe with a correlation coefficient of 0.995. The relative standard deviations for the recoveries were <5.2. The method was also examined for the analysis of ezetimibe in the biological samples.

Cetyl-alcohol-reinforced hollow fiber solid/liquid-phase microextraction and HPLC-DAD analysis of ezetimibe and simvastatin in human plasma and urine.

A new cetyl-alcohol-reinforced hollow fiber solid/liquid-phase microextraction (CA-HF-SLPME) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method was developed for simultaneous determination of ezetimibe and simvastatin in human plasma and urine samples. To prepare the CA-HF-SLPME device, the cetyl-alcohol was immobilized into the pores of a 2.5 cm hollow fiber micro-tube and the lumen of the micro-tube was filled with 1-octanol with the two ends sealed. Afterwards, the prepared device was introduced into 10 mL of the sample solution containing the analytes with agitation. Under optimized conditions, calibration curves plotted in spiked plasma and urine samples were linear in the ranges of 0.363-25/0.49-25 µg L-1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin and 0.193-25/0.312-25 µg L-1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin in plasma and urine samples, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.109/0.174 µg L-1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin in plasma and 0.058/0.093 µg L-1 for ezetimibe/simvastatin in urine. As a potential application, the proposed method was applied to determine the concentration of selected analytes in patient plasma and urine samples after medication and satisfactory results were achieved. In comparison with reference methods, the CA-HF-SLPME-HPLC-DAD method demonstrates considerable potential in the biopharmaceutical analysis of selected drugs.

Development and validation of a novel stability-indicating HPLC method for the quantitative determination of eleven related substances in ezetimibe drug substance and drug product.

Ezetimibe is a novel lipid-lowering agent that inhibits intestinal absorption of dietary and biliary cholesterol. In the present work, a simple, sensitive and reproducible gradient reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method for separation and determination of the related substances of ezetimibe was developed and validated. Eleven potential process-related impurities (starting materials, (3S,4S,3'S)-isomer, degradants and byproducts) were identified in the crude samples. Tentative structures for all the impurities were assigned primarily based on comparison of their retention time and mass spectrometric data with that of available standards and references. This method can be applied to routine analysis in quality control of both bulk drugs and commercial tablets. Separation of all these compounds was performed on a Phenomenex Luna Phenyl-Hexyl (100mm×4.6mm, 5µm) analytical column. The mobile phase-A consists of acetonitrile-water (pH adjusted to 4.0 with phosphoric acid)-methanol at 15:75:10 (v/v/v), and mobile phase-B contains acetonitrile. The eluted compounds were monitored at 210nm. Ezetimibe was subjected to hydrolytic, acid, base, oxidative, photolytic and thermal stress conditions as per ICH serves to generate degradation products that can be used as a worst case to assess the analytical method performance. The drug showed extensive degradation in thermal, acid, oxidative, base and hydrolytic stress conditions, while it was stable to photolytic degradation conditions. The main degradation product formed under thermal, acid, oxidative, base and hydrolytic stress conditions corresponding to (2R,3R,6S)-N, 6-bis(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-oxane-3-carboxamide (Ezetimibe tetrahydropyran impurity) was characterized by LC-MS/MS analysis. The degradation products were well resolved from the main peak and its impurities, thus proved the stability-indicating power of the method. The developed method was validated as per international conference on harmonization (ICH) guidelines with respect to specificity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, precision and robustness.