Quantitative determination of cesium binding to ferric hexacyanoferrate: Prussian blue

Patrick J Faustino1, Yongsheng Yang, Joseph J Progar

  • 1Division of Product Quality Research, Office of Testing and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA. patrick.faustino@fda.hhs.gov

Ferric hexacyanoferrate (Fe4III[FeII(CN)6]3), also known as insoluble Prussian blue (PB) is the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of the drug product, Radiogardase. Radiogardase is the first FDA approved medical countermeasure for the treatment of internal contamination with radioactive cesium (Cs) or thallium in the event of a major radiological incident such as a "dirty bomb". A number of pre-clinical and clinical studies have evaluated the use of PB as an investigational decorporation agent to enhance the excretion of metal cations. There are few sources of published in vitro data that detail the binding capacity of cesium to insoluble PB under various chemical and physical conditions. The study objective was to determine the in vitro binding capacity of PB APIs and drug products by evaluating certain chemical and physical factors such as medium pH, particle size, and storage conditions (temperature). In vitro experimental conditions ranged from pH 1 to 9, to cover the range of pH levels that PB may encounter in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in humans. Measurements of cesium binding were made between 1 and 24h, to cover gastric and intestinal tract residence time using a validated atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) method. The results indicated that pH, exposure time, storage temperature (affecting moisture content) and particle size play significant roles in the cesium binding to both the PB API and the drug product. The lowest cesium binding was observed at gastric pH of 1 and 2, whereas the highest cesium binding was observed at physiological pH of 7.5. It was observed that dry storage conditions resulted in a loss of moisture from PB, which had a significant negative effect on the PB cesium binding capacity at time intervals consistent with gastric residence. Differences were also observed in the binding capacity of PB with different particle sizes. Significant batch to batch differences were also observed in the binding capacity of some PB API and drug products. Our results suggest that certain physiochemical properties affect the initial binding capacity and the overall binding capacity of PB APIs and drug products during conditions that simulated gastric and GI residence time. These physiochemical properties can be utilized as quality attributes to monitor and predict drug product quality under certain manufacturing and storage conditions and may be utilized to enhance the clinical efficacy of PB.

Related Concept Videos

Qualitative Analysis03:46

Qualitative Analysis

For solutions containing mixtures of different cations, the identity of each cation can be determined by qualitative analysis. This technique involves a series of selective precipitations with different chemical reagents, each reaction producing a characteristic precipitate for a specific group of cations. Metal ions within a group are further separated by varying the pH, heating the mixture to redissolve a precipitate, or adding other reagents to form complex ions.
For instance, group IV...
Formation of Complex Ions03:45

Formation of Complex Ions

A type of Lewis acid-base chemistry involves the formation of a complex ion (or a coordination complex) comprising a central atom, typically a transition metal cation, surrounded by ions or molecules called ligands. These ligands can be neutral molecules like H2O or NH3, or ions such as CN− or OH−. Often, the ligands act as Lewis bases, donating a pair of electrons to the central atom. These types of Lewis acid-base reactions are examples of a broad subdiscipline called coordination...
Ion-Exchange Chromatography01:09

Ion-Exchange Chromatography

Ion-exchange chromatography, or IEC, is a technique for separating ions based on their affinity for the stationary phase. The stationary phase is a cross-linked polymer resin with covalently attached ionic functional groups. The functional groups can be either positively charged (cation exchangers) or negatively charged (anion exchangers). A cation exchanger consists of a polymeric anion and active cations, while an anion exchanger is a polymeric cation with active anions. The choice of...
Colors and Magnetism03:02

Colors and Magnetism

Color in Coordination Complexes
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.
Extraction: Advanced Methods00:56

Extraction: Advanced Methods

Metal ions can be separated from one another by complexation with organic ligands–the chelating agent– to form uncharged chelates. Here, the chelating agent must contain hydrophobic groups and behave as a weak acid, losing a proton to bind with the metal. Since most organic ligands used in this process are insoluble or undergo oxidation in the aqueous phase, the chelating agent is initially added to the organic phase and extracted into the aqueous phase. The metal-ligand complex is formed in...
Precipitation of Ions03:11

Precipitation of Ions

Predicting Precipitation
The equation that describes the equilibrium between solid calcium carbonate and its solvated ions is: