Capillary electrokinetic chromatography for studying interactions between β-blockers and Intralipid emulsion

Toxicity of β-blockers is one of the most common causes of poison-induced cardiogenic shock throughout the world. Therefore, methodologies for in vivo removal of the drugs from the body have been under investigation. Intralipid emulsion (ILE) is a common commercial lipid emulsion used for parenteral nutrition, but it has also been administered to patients suffering from drug toxicities. In this work, a set of β-blockers of different hydrophobicity's (log K_D values ranging from 0.16 to 3.8) were investigated. The relative strength of the interactions between these compounds and the ILE was quantitatively assessed by means of binding constants and adsorption constants of the formed β-blocker-ILE complexes. The binding constants were determined by capillary electrokinetic chromatography and the adsorption constants were calculated based on different adsorption isotherms. Expectedly, the binding constants were strongly related to the log K_D values of the β-blockers. The binding and adsorption constants also show that less hydrophobic β-blockers interact with ILE, suggesting that this emulsion could be useful for capturing such compounds in cases of their overdoses. Thus, the use of ILE for treatment of toxicities caused by a larger range of β-blockers is worth further investigation.