A study of photostability and compatibility of the anti-chagas drug Benznidazole with pharmaceutics excipients.

UNLABELLED: Abstract Context: Benznidazole (BNZ) is an antiparasitic with trypanocidal properties for the etiological treatment of Chagas disease since 1973. Monitoring the stability of this drug is one of the most effective methods of assessment, forecasting and prevention of problems related to quality product. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the direct and indirect photodegradation of BNZ and to evaluate the interference of the excipients used in the forms dosage solid as well as to shed light on the chemical structure of the degradation products obtained. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To perform this work we adopted the "ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline: Photostability Testing of New Drug Substances and Products Q1B" (Guideline Q1B). We used benzonidazole (BNZ) (N-benzil-2-(2-nitroimidazol-1-il) acetamide) (LAFEPE®, Recife, Brazil) and various excipients; beyond high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The indirect photodegradation of BNZ was carried out using physical mixtures with 13 pharmaceutical excipients commonly used in the preparation of solid dosage forms. RESULTS: HPLC and MS/MS techniques were selected for the identification of two photoproducts (PPs) and photoreactions found in direct and indirect tests with the microcrystalline cellulose, considered a critical excipient. DISCUSSION: Despite variations in the infrared spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry and differential thermogravimetry curves, these techniques are not conclusive since the study of photodegradation of the drug caused decay of 30%, according to the ICH. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that BNZ only undergoes direct photodegradation, since no new PPs were found for a combination of the drug and excipients.

Comparative evaluation of UV/VIS and HPLC analytical methodologies applied for quantification of flavonoids from leaves of Bauhinia forficata

Spectrophotometric determinations (direct dilution or after acid hydrolysis) of flavonoid content in leaves of Bauhinia forficata Link, Fabaceae, from two different regions from Brazil were compared with contents of kaempferitrin quantified by HPLC analysis. The absence of kaempferitrin peak in one sample denotes the risk of LC-method failure. On the other hand, the both spectrophotometric assays showed satisfactory performance and do not underwent influence from absence of kaempferitrin. Since several flavonoids are present in the herbal material, different content of flavonoids were observed for each analytical procedure. However, a strong positive association could be detected among methods (R²>0.99). Although a conversion factor should be adopted to compare procedures, the data showed that the spectrophotometric methods remain as an important tool for analysis of complex matrices such herbal drugs, notably when there aren't any pharmacological or chemical marker established for the species. Moreover, it's possible to suggest that the techniques studied in this work exhibit similar performance under the conditions employed. Nevertheless, before the adoption of kaempferitrin as an analytical marker by HPLC for Bauhinia species, the pharmacological knowledge should be better developed. In this cases, the use of spectrophotometric assay provide higher assurance of the reproducibility of the efficacy and safety.

Benznidazole drug delivery by binary and multicomponent inclusion complexes using cyclodextrins and polymers.

Benznidazole (BNZ) is the drug of choice for Chagas disease treatment, which affects about 9.8 million people worldwide. It has low solubility and high toxicity. The present study aimed to develop and characterize inclusion complexes (IC) in binary systems (BS) with BNZ and randomly methylated-ß-cyclodextrin (RMßCD) and in ternary systems (TS) with BNZ, RMßCD and hydrophilic polymers. The results showed that the solid BS had a large increase in dissolution rate (Q>80%). For the solid IC obtained, the kneading method, in ratio of 1:0.17 (77.8% in 60 min), appeared to be the most suitable for the development of a solid oral pharmaceutical product, with possible industrial scale-up and low concentration of CD. The solid TS containing 0.1% of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) showed no significant advantages compared to the binary IC in solid state. The use of cyclodextrins proved to be a viable tool for effective, standardized and safe drug delivery.

The use of solid dispersion systems in hydrophilic carriers to increase benzonidazole solubility.

The present study investigates the release mechanism of benznidazole (BNZ) in solid dispersions with polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 6000) and polyvinylpirrolydone K-30 (PVP K-30), with a view to observing the increase in solubility of BNZ in water in the presence of these two hydrophilic polymers. The interaction of BNZ with the polymers was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transformation infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and in vitro dissolution tests, and a theoretical study of molecular modeling was also carried out. The drug-polymer interaction was studied trough molecular modeling, using density functional theory with the B3LYP exchange correlation function. The corrected interaction energies were calculated to be -20.9 kJ/mol with PVP and -6.6 kJ/mol with PEG. The experimental and theoretical results indicate that a powerful interaction occurred between BNZ and the polymers, which was especially strong in the case of PVP, and that this interaction contributed to improvement of BNZ solubility.