Comparative stability of cephalosporins in aqueous solution: kinetics and mechanisms of degradation

The acidic, neutral, and alkaline degradations of six therapeutically useful cephalosporins (cephalothin, cephaloridine, cephaloglycin, cephalexin, cephradine, and cefazolin), 7-amino-cephalosporanic acid, 7-aminodeacetoxycephalosporanic acid, and some 7-substituted derivatives were followed by high-pressure liquid chromatographic, UV spectrometric, iodometric, and hydroxamic acid assays. The pH-rate profiles were determined at 35 degrees and mu = 0.5. The acidic degradation pathway for the 3-acetoxymethyl and 3-pyridinylmethyl derivatives was the specific hydrogen-ion-catalyzed hydrolysis of the beta-lactam bonds. The beta-lactam hydrolyses of these antibiotics exhibited half-lives of about 25 hr at pH 1.0 and 35 degrees. The acetyl functions of 3-acetoxymethylcephalosporins were hydrolyzed eight times faster than their beta-lactam moieties to yield the corresponding deacetyl intermediates, which were rapidly converted to the lactones. Deacetoxycephalosporins were fairly acid stable; e.g., cephalexin and cephradine were about 25 times more stable than cephalothin, cephaloridine, and cephaloglycin and about 180 times more stable than ampicillin at pH 1.0. In the neutral degradation of 3-acetoxymethyl compounds, the competitive reactions of the direct water attack and intramolecular catalysis by the side-chain amido upon the beta-lactams were proposed. The pH-rate profiles near pH 8 for cephaloglycin, cephalexin, and cephradine could be explained by the intramolecular-nucleophilic attack of the side-chain alpha-amino group upon the beta-lactam carbonyls to produce diketopiperazine-type compounds. The reactivity of the cephalosporins in the hydroxideion-catalyzed degradation was influenced significantly by the C-3 methylene substituents.