A novel stability-indicating analytical method development for simultaneous determination of carboplatin and...

Drug resistance is one of the main problems of cancer treatment. For this reason, combination therapy is commonly used for years. The combination of a chemotherapeutic, carboplatin, and the epigenetic drug decitabine is a new approach to modulate drug resistance. Nanoparticulate systems can overcome the drawbacks associated with the drug combinations. An analytical method that can detect and quantify carboplatin and decitabine which is encapsulated into the nanoparticles is necessary for nanoparticle development. In the literature, there is no analytical method in which carboplatin and decitabine are determined simultaneously. The primary purpose of this study is to develop and validate a novel, and stability-indicating high-performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous determination of carboplatin and decitabine in pharmaceutical preparations in addition to developing the first nanoformulation for this drug combination. Therefore, various experimental parameters were optimized. The chromatographic separation was achieved using an XSelect^® CSH C18 (250 × 4.6 mm I.D., 5 µm) column and a mobile phase consisting of methanol:water (containing 0.1% phosphoric acid) (3:97, v/v). The mobile phase pH was adjusted to 7.0 with 5 M NaOH. The developed method was successfully applied for the simultaneous determination and quantification of carboplatin and decitabine co-encapsulated in nanoparticles and released into in vitro dissolution medium.