Developing, optimizing, and assessing a green electrophoretic method for determination of benzbromarone and allopurinol with its active metabolite in biological and pharmaceutical matrices.

A combination of allopurinol and benzbromarone is a common gout treatment protocol. A suboptimal response to allopurinol in patients is very common due to its pharmacokinetics variability. Moreover, the safe doses of benzbromarone is very crucial in patients with hepatic diseases. This raised the inquisitiveness to develop and optimize a capillary zone electrophoresis method for the determination of allopurinol and benzbromarone in their coformulation and in the presence of oxypurinol, the active metabolite of allopurinol, in biological and pharmaceutical matrices. The method greenness profile was assessed using green metric tools the "National Environmental Method Index," the "Analytical Eco-Scale," and the "Green Analytical Procedure Index" by which the method proved to be ecofriendly. The method was successfully applied for the analysis of the pharmaceutical preparation and urine samples spiked with both drugs and the active metabolite. The linearity range was 25.0-250.0 µg/mL for benzbromarone, 50.0-350.0 µg/mL for allopurinol, and 100.0-500.0 µg/mL for oxypurinol. The recoveries were 99.60 ± 0.67, 99.89 ± 0.98, and 98.71 ± 1.18% for benzbromarone, allopurinol, and oxypurinol, respectively. The analysis results indicate potential usefulness of capillary zone electrophoresis as a competitive and greener method of analysis in biological and quality control labs.

Development of a QPatch-Automated Electrophysiology Assay for Identifying TMEM16A Small-Molecule Inhibitors.

The calcium-activated chloride channel, TMEM16A, is involved in airway hydration and bronchoconstriction and is a promising target for respiratory disease. Drug development efforts around channels require an electrophysiology-based assay for identifying inhibitors or activators. TMEM16A has proven to be a difficult channel to record on automated electrophysiology platforms due to its propensity for rundown. We developed an automated, whole-cell, electrophysiology assay on the QPatch-48 to evaluate small-molecule inhibitors of TMEM16A. In this assay, currents remained stable for a duration of roughly 11 min, allowing for the cumulative addition of five concentrations of compounds and resulted in reproducible IC50s. The absence of rundown was likely due to a low internal free-calcium level of 250 nM, which was high enough to produce large currents, but also maintained the voltage dependence of the channel. Current amplitude averaged 6 nA using the single-hole QPlate and the channel maintained outward rectification throughout the recording. Known TMEM16A inhibitors were tested and their IC50s aligned with those reported in the literature using manual patch-clamp. Once established, this assay was used to validate novel TMEM16A inhibitors that were identified in our high-throughput fluorescent-based assay, as well as to assist in structure-activity relationship efforts by the chemists. Overall, we demonstrate an easy to operate, reproducible, automated electrophysiology assay using the QPatch-48 for TMEM16A drug development efforts.

[Simultaneous determination of allopurinol, probenecid, benzbromarone in dietary supplements by ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry].

A method based on QuEChERS purification was developed for the simultaneous determination of allopurinol, probenecid and benzbromarone in anti-gout dietary supplements by ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The samples were extracted by acetonitrile mixed with 0.1% (v/v) ammonium hydroxide, and the extracts were purified using primary secondary amine (PSA) and C18 adsorbents. The samples were separated on a C18 chromatographic column with the gradient elution of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution and methanol as mobile phases. The analytes were detected by a electrospray ionization source in the positive or negative ion mode and the multiple reaction monitoring mode. The results showed that the limits of detection of allopurinol, probenecid and benzbromarone were 5, 25 and 25 µg/kg, and the limits of quantification were 17, 80 and 80 µg/kg. The average spiked recoveries of the three chemical drugs in dietary supplements were in the range of 76.8%-116.6% with the relative standard deviations of 2.7%-14.6%. The proposed method was applied for the analysis of 68 dietary supplements, and allopurinol was detected in one of them. This method is simple and sensitive, and can be used for the determination of the allopurinol, probenecid and benzbromarone in anti-gout dietary supplements.

Comparative study on the interaction between 3 CYP2C9 allelic isoforms and benzbromarone by using LC-MS/MS method.

Benzbromarone is a uricosuric drug metabolized predominantly by cytochrome P450 2C9 from in vitro findings. Human CYP2C9 exhibits extensive genetic polymorphism and numbers of clinic studies have demonstrated that CYP2C9 genetic polymorphism has a significant influence on the pharmacokinetics of benzbromarone. But in vitro study on the interaction between CYP2C9 allelic isoforms and benzbromarone was rare. Here, an LC-MS/MS method was established and validated to determine the concentration of benzbromarone in different CYP2C9 enzyme incubation systems for the drug-enzyme interaction study. By selecting appropriate internal standard and optimizing separation system, including mobile phase, sample solvent and gradient elution condition, this LC-MS/MS method was developed with fine linearity (r2≥0.996), good reproducibility (RSD≤6.6%), high stability (92.37-114.67%), efficient recovery (91.23-109.82%) and acceptable matrix effect (110.54-115.31%). Based on this method, the interaction between 3 CYP2C9 allelic isoforms and benzbromarone was researched by kinetics parameters (Km, Vmax, Clint). As a result, CYP2C9*1 displayed the highest metabolic activity towards benzbromarone, CYP2C9*2 showed a little lower catalytic activity than CYP2C9*1 (relative clearance/*1=85.86%), CYP2C9*3 showed the lowest catalytic activity (relative clearance/*1=21.57%). The result illustrated that various CYP2C9 allelic isoforms showed different enzymatic activities towards benzbromarone, which could offer effective consultation for personalized administration in clinic.

Metabolism studies of benzbromarone in rats by high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry.

A high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS) method was employed in investigation of benzbromarone metabolites in rat plasma, urine, feces and bile samples. Meanwhile, the metabolic pathways of benzbromarone in rats were discussed. The identification was achieved on a reversed-phase C(18) column with mobile phase gradient method. The QTOF-MS was operated under full scan of MS or MS/MS in negative mode. The fragments were acquired by raising collision induced dissociation (CID) energy for speculating the structures of parent ions. According to the information from the chromatograms and mass spectra, 17 metabolites were obtained. Among them, the deoxidized phase I metabolites and an array of phase II metabolites-sulfate conjugates detected in the biological samples made the work more significant.

Determination of benzarone in human plasma and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Identification of the conjugates.

Benzarone (the debrominated metabolite of the uricosuric drug benzbromarone) has been proposed for treatment of vascular disorders. An assay was developed for the quantitation of total benzarone (conjugated and unconjugated) in plasma and urine, following oral intake of benzarone. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the samples with beta-glucuronidase/arylsulphatase, extraction, gradient elution high-performance liquid chromatography with reversed-phase columns and UV detection were used for the assay. The concentration ranges, precision and sensitivities were: 0.01-2 micrograms/ml, 3-5% and 0.01 microgram/ml, respectively, for both plasma and urine. These results were validated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after methylated derivatives were prepared. Enzymatic hydrolysis of plasma with pure beta-glucuronidase or arylsulphatase showed that the relative amounts of unconjugated, glucuronidated, and sulphated benzarone were 6, 12 and 82% respectively, for both plasma and urine.