Journal of AOAC International最新文献

Background: Biologics are essential in cancer treatment because they stimulate the body's natural response to fight cancer, but they are expensive. Biosimilars are more affordable compared to patent biologicals, but it must be verified that they are as effective as their innovators. Characterization of biosimilars and assessment of interchangeability requires many data points for verification.

Objective: The proposed study provides a quality assessment of two new bevacizumab (BVZ) biosimilars, produced by Amgen and Biocad, Inc., through the development and greenness assessment of an orthogonal testing protocol and purity indicating assay, including size-exclusion (SE-HPLC), reversed-phase (RP-HPLC), and cation exchange chromatography (CEX-HPLC) in addition to dynamic light scattering (DLS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).

Methods: SE-HPLC method was performed and validated to screen the BVZ monomer and its aggregates and/or fragments. Peak purity and system suitability parameters were calculated. Results indicate that the orthogonal protocol is a useful tool for assessing monoclonal antibody stability. It is a key criterion for biosimilarity assessment. DLS and SDS-PAGE results were compared to each other to reveal close retention times and banding patterns between BVZ innovator and its biosimilars. These results showed that Avastin® and the investigated biosimilars have the same profile in terms of peak area of related compounds within the acceptance limit and apparent molecular weight, and the SDS-PAGE technique was found to be the most eco-friendly technique among others.

Conclusions: The results obtained highlighted the importance of assessing similarities and differences in ensuring the biosimilarity and interchangeability of the studied products.

Highlights: BVZ is one of the essential monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). BVZ biosimilars were evaluated by developing an orthogonal testing protocol and a purity-indicating assay. The size-exclusion (SE)-HPLC method was applied and validated to monitor the BVZ monomer and its aggregates. The results demonstrated the importance of assessing the stability and biosimilarity of BVZ.

Background: Glutathione, silybin, and curcumin are well-known potential antioxidants that are recommended as adjuvant therapy in cancer treatment.

Objective: Based on the principles of Analytical Quality by Design (AQbD) and green analytical chemistry, a simple, robust, and environmentally benign HPLC method for the simultaneous estimation of glutathione, silybin, and curcumin in bulk and formulation was performed.

Method: Elution was achieved by an Agilent Eclipse XDB C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm id, 3.5 μm) column using a gradient mobile phase composed of ethanol-water pH 6.7 (with 0.1%, v/v orthophosphoric acid) and 1.07 mL/min flow rate with PDA detection at 215 nm. Critical method variables were identified by risk assessment using an Ishikawa diagram, and multivariate optimization of the experimental conditions for the HPLC technique was accomplished by central composite design using design of experiments (DoE) software.

Results: The separation was achieved within 15 min, where the retention time of glutathione, silybin, and curcumin were 3.3, 4.9, and 7.3 min, respectively. The standard curve was linear in the range of 3.75-26.25 µg/mL for glutathione, 62.50-437.50 µg/mL for silybin, and 12.5-87.50 µg/mL for curcumin. The developed method was validated as per ICH guidelines Q2 (R1), and all the parameters are within specified limits.

Conclusions: The proposed method is simple, precise, and robust, which can be employed for routine analysis and also concluded to be a greener approach according to AGREE, Green Analytical Procedure Index, and analytical eco-scale tools.

Highlights: The chosen antioxidants were evaluated for the very first time simultaneously using the chromatographic technique in bulk and dosage forms employing green solvents. The peak purity of all three compounds was studied using a PDA detector. Wastage was reduced in terms of time, cost, and solvents by employing AQbD elements and tools. Complete application of environmentally sustainable safe solvents were employed.

Background: Sulfasalazine and pentoxifylline are co-prescribed together to treat psoriasis and pemphigus vulgaris. Sulfasalazine is an anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressant, and antibiotic drug, while pentoxifylline is a vasodilator and immunosuppressant. The spectra of the two drugs and plasma suffer from severe overlap.

Objective: This work aims to simultaneously determine sulfasalazine and pentoxifylline in their binary mixture and spiked human plasma by the assessment of their UV spectral data.

Methods: Two model updated chemometric methods were established using principal component regression and partial least-squares regression models. The two models were validated in accordance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines for bioanalysis and were applied for the determination of both drugs in synthetic mixtures or spiked human plasma.

Results: Accuracy and precision were within the accepted limits. In addition, three different assessment methods were used to evaluate the environmental greenness of the proposed models.

Conclusion: The two updated models are simple, rapid, sensitive, and precise, and could be easily applied in QC laboratories for determination of sulfasalazine and pentoxifylline, without any preliminary separation steps or interference from plasma matrix.

Highlights: Two updated chemometric models called principlal component regression and partial least-squares regression were established for determination of sulfasalazine and pentoxifylline in spiked human plasma using UV spectrophotometric data.

Background: Owing to the presence of overlapping spectra in pharmaceutical components, classical spectrophotometry is hard for concurrent determination. The advance of chemometrics along with UV-Vis spectrophotometry has contributed to solving this problem.

Objective: In this study, a fast, easy, precise, accurate, low-cost, and eco-friendly spectrophotometric technique was introduced and validated for the simultaneous analysis of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and vitamin C in fertility supplements for men and women using continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and partial least squares (PLS) techniques without using time-consuming extraction process and organic solvents.

Method: In the CWT method, the zero-crossing technique was applied to obtain the optimum points for plotting calibration curves for each component. The validation of both methods was evaluated by analyzing several mixtures with different concentrations. The efficiency of the proposed methods was also surveyed on commercial capsules.

Results: Wavelet families, including Symlet (sym2) at 230, Biorthogonal (bior1.3) at 378 nm, and Daubechies (db2) at 261, were considered for vitamins B6, B12, and C, respectively. The linear range was found to be 8-20, 8-20, and 10-25 μg/mL with the coefficient of determination (R2) equal to 0.9982, 0.9978, and 0.9701 for B6, B12, and C, respectively. Low limit of detection (LOD) (<0.09 μg/mL) and limit of quantification (LOQ) <0.9 μg/mL were achieved. The mean recovery values in synthetic mixtures were from 98.38 to 98.89% and from 99.83 to 99.99%, where root-mean-square error (RMSE) of not more than 0.4 and 0.05 using the CWT and PLS methods, respectively.

Conclusions: The obtained results from the commercial capsules, applying the suggested techniques, were compared to those yielded by the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. According to the results, there are no significant differences, and they were in good agreement. According to all the mentioned cases, the proposed approaches can replace the time-consuming and costly HPLC method in quality control laboratories.

Highlights: Green spectrophotometry coupling chemometrics methods were proposed. Simultaneous determination of three water-soluble vitamins in fertility supplements was done using these approaches. Rapidity, simplicity, low cost, and accuracy are the benefits of the proposed methods. A HPLC technique was used as a reference method to compare with the chemometrics methods.

Background: The fixed-dose combination of vildagliptin (VDG) and dapagliflozin (DGZ) is used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to the literature survey, RP-HPLC and HPTLC methods have been reported for routine analysis of VDG and DGZ. These chromatographic methods have been developed using potentially neurotoxic and teratogenic solvents, which are unsafe for human and aquatic animal life and hazardous to the environment. These types of organic solvents shall be replaced or reduced during chromatographic analysis of drugs for the safety of human and aquatic animal life and the protection of the environment. The novel white analytical chemistry (WAC) approach has been introduced, which emphasizes robust, green, user-friendly, economical, and rapid analysis of drug samples.

Objective: Hence, the WAC-based RP-HPLC method has been developed for the estimation of VDG and DGZ using lower toxic and economical solvents.

Method: The development of the RP-HPLC method includes the implementation of the analytical quality by design approach using principles of design of experiments to reduce organic waste generation and regulatory compliance of analytical method. The central composite design was applied for response surface modeling (RSM) and optimization of the RP-HPLC method. The method validation was carried out according to ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines.

Results: The fixed-dose combinations of VDG and DGZ were assayed, and results were found in compliance with their labeled claim. The published and proposed RP-HPLC methods were assessed for chromatographic analysis of VDG and DGZ using the Red-Green-Blue (RGB) model, AGREE calculator, Eco-Scale Assessment tool, GAPI software, and NEMI standards.

Conclusions: The proposed method was found to be robust, green, economical, and user-friendly for chromatographic analysis of VDG and DGZ. The proposed method can be an economical and eco-friendly analytical tool in the pharmaceutical industry for quality control and routine analysis of fixed-dose combinations of VDG and DGZ.

Highlights: Hybrid principles of WAC and analytical quality by design to RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of VDG and DGZ in their fixed-dose combinations.

Background: Zinc helps with cell division, growth, wound healing, and carbohydrate breakdown. Humanbeings have to obtain zinc from food or supplements because our bodies do not produce it naturally. In view of the greater advantages (such as low cost, time of analysis, and stability-indicating) compared to other quantification methods (titration, ion chromatography, Atomic absorption spectroscopy) proposed in the literature, a refractive index detector coupled with HPLC has been used in quantification of zinc.

Objective: The goal of this research is to develop and validate a sensitive, low-cost, high-resolution, and stability- indicating method for detecting and quantifying zinc levels in zinc supplement pharmaceutical products (injectables, tablets, and capsules).

Methods: A novel isocratic reverse-phase HPLC method with a refractive index detector (with sensitivity 64, detector temperature 35°C, and positive polarity) was developed using a carboxyl functional group packed column and 0.8% (v/v) formic acid as the mobile phase to detect and quantify zinc content.

Results: The reported method has a good optimal sensitivity (LOQ: 0.006 mg/mL and LOD: 0.002 mg/mL). The correlation coefficient (r) obtained from the zinc calibration plot was greater than 0.998, indicating that the method was linear and that there was a strong correlation between zinc concentration (0.006 mg/mL to 0.375 mg/mL) and peak response. The accuracy at LOQ level was found to be 95-105% and 97-103% at the remaining levels (50, 100, and 150%).

Conclusion: The proposed method was successfully developed and validated as per International council for harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. Therefore, this method can be used for the quantitative testing of zinc in the QC laboratory.

Highlights: A novel method was developed for zinc levels determination in pharmaceutical products using HPLC with a refractive index detector. The present approach has a quick run time of 10 min and is inexpensive.

Background: Dendrobium huoshanense (DHS) is a classic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with distinctive medicinal benefits and great economic worth; nevertheless, because of similar tastes and looks, it is simple to adulterate with less expensive substitutes (such as Dendrobium henanense [DHN]).

Objective: This work aimed to develop a reliable tool to detect and quantify the adulteration of DHS with DHN by using UV-Vis-shortwave near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis-SWNIR DRS) combined with chemometrics.

Methods: Adulterated samples prepared in varying concentrations (0-100%, w/w) were analyzed with UV-Vis-SWNIR DRS methods. Partial least-square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and partial least-squares (PLS) regression techniques were used for the differentiation of adulterated DHN from pure DHS and the prediction of adulteration levels.

Results: The PLS-DA classification models successfully differentiated adulterated and nonadulterated DHS with an over 100% correct classification rate. UV-Vis-SWNIR DRS data were also successfully used to predict adulteration levels with a high coefficient of determination for calibration (0.9924) and prediction (0.9906) models and low error values for calibration (3.863%) and prediction (5.067%).

Conclusion: UV-Vis-SWNIR DRS, as a fast and environmentally friendly tool, has great potential for both the identification and quantification of adulteration practices involving herbal medicines and foods.

Highlights: UV-Vis-SWNIR DRS combined with chemometrics can be applied to identify and quantify the adulteration of herbal medicines and foods.

Background: People who have non-valvular atrial fibrillation may benefit from taking a new oral anticoagulant called apixaban, which has recently been given the green light by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. During stress testing, apixaban was found to have a high degree of degradability when subjected to both acidic and basic conditions, and one significant unknown impurity was observed in addition to the major known impurities.

Objective: Our aim is the isolation and characterization of degradation product observed in stress/forced degradation studies, and also the development of a single HPLC method that is both reliable and accurate for quantifying all 10 related impurities of apixaban.

Methods: Preparative HPLC was used to isolate the degradation product, and 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and MS were used to elucidate the structure of the product. Additionally, a single reverse-phase (RP) HPLC method was developed for quantification of all related impurities of apixaban.

Results: Based on the spectral characterization data, the identified unknown degradation impurity was found to be a pH-independent hydrolysis degradation impurity of apixaban. The developed method is specific, linear, accurate, robust, and rugged.

Conclusion: The isolated and characterized impurities were the same as those found during stress testing. The developed method has been validated for its intended purpose in accordance with the regulatory requirements that were outlined.

Highlights: The unknown impurity is a new apixaban degradation impurity that helps us understand its toxicity. The scientific community will benefit from the developed analytical method information as it relates to understanding drug product impurity profiling.

Background: Drug impurities are now seen as a major threat to the production of pharmaceuticals around the world and a major part of the global contamination problem, especially when it comes to carcinogenic impurities.

Objective: We present the first spectrophotometric strategy based on a combination of univariate and multivariate methods as impurity profiling methods for the estimation of lignocaine (LIG) and fluorescein (FLS) with their carcinogenic impurities: 2,6-xylidine (XYL) and benzene-1,3-diol (BZD).

Method: The data processing strategy depends on overcoming unresolved bands by employing five affordable, accurate, selective, and sensitive methods. The methods applied were a direct UV univariate spectrophotometric analysis (D0) and four multivariate chemometric methods, including classical least squares (CLS), principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS), and genetic algorithm (GA-PLS). FLS analysis (1-16 μg/mL) was performed using the D0 method at 478 nm; then, the application of the ratio subtraction method (RSM) allowed the removal of interference caused by the FLS spectrum. From the resulting ratio spectra, LIG, XYL, and BZD can be efficiently determined by chemometrics. The calibration set was carefully selected at five concentration levels using a partial factorial training design, resulting in 25 mixtures with central levels of 160, 40, and 3 μg/mL for LIG, XYL, and BZD, respectively. Another 13 samples were applied to validate the predictive ability.

Results: The statistical parameters demonstrated exceptional recoveries and smaller prediction errors, confirming the experimental model's predictive power.

Conclusions: The proposed approach was effectively tested using newly FDA-approved LIG and FLS pharmaceutical preparation and aqueous humor. Additionally, it was effectively assessed for whiteness, greenness, and sustainability using five assessment tools.

Highlights: With its remarkable analytical performance, sustainability, affordability, simplicity, and cost-efficiency, the proposed strategy is an indispensable tool for quality control and in situ analysis in little-equipped laboratories, increasing the proposed approach's surveillance ability.

Background: The AOAC Stakeholder Panel on Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals issued a call for methods for the determination of fluoride in infant formula. Standard Method Performance Requirement (SMPR®) 2014.016 was approved.

Objective: A single-laboratory validation (SLV) of a fluoride ion-selective electrode (F-ISE) method was completed.

Methods: Five powder samples were reconstituted, and hydrochloric acid was added to dissolve and release any bound fluoride. Samples included infant and adult nutritional products made from milk, whey, or soy, containing intact, partially hydrolyzed, or hydrolyzed proteins. Sodium citrate buffer was added to complex any interfering ions and adjust pH and ionic strength. Samples were analyzed in duplicate over 6 days using F-ISE.

Results: Results were calculated based on one of two least-squares (log fit) standard curves (0.02 to 0.1 µg/100 g or 0.1 to 2.0 µg/100 g). The LOQ for the method was determined to be 3.3 µg/100 g, which was far below the minimum analytical value of 30 µg/100 g required in the SMPR. The fluoride concentrations ranged from approximately 3 to 14 µg/100 g reconstituted powder and the intermediate precision, RSDr, ranged from 0.7 to 12.4%. Although all of these results are out of scope for the SMPR due to their low fluoride, it should be noted that the RSDr for formulas with fluoride concentrations ranging from approximately 9 to 14 µg/100 g ranged from 0.7 to 4.3%, and the RSDr for the two formulas with fluoride concentrations at or below the theoretical detection limit of the method were only approximately10 and 12.4%. Recoveries ranged from 94 to 98% for samples spiked at three levels with NIST-traceable standard solutions, meeting the SMPR.

Conclusion: The F-ISE method meets the SMPR and was adopted as a First Action Official MethodSM.

Highlights: The fluoride ion-selective electrode method presented here is affordable and easy to run. The addition of acid to the samples dissolves any minerals which may bind the fluoride.