Development and validation of a chiral high-performance liquid chromatography assay for rogletimide and...

The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a stereo-specific high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assay for rogletimide (Rog) and rogletimide-N-oxide (Nox) isomers in plasma. The assay was performed with a chiral cellulose-[4-methylbenzoate]ester column (Chiracel OJ). Optimal separation was achieved isocratically with a mobile phase consisting of n-hexane/anhydrous ethanol (65/35, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.9 ml/min, with the column being thermostated at +35 degrees C (UV detection at 257 nm). Under these conditions, retention times were approximately 17, 28, 31 and 76 min for R-Rog, S-Rog, R-Nox and S-Nox, respectively. S-aminoglutethimide (S-Ag) served as the internal standard (retention time 70 min). An extraction procedure from plasma samples was developed on Bond Elut RP8 500-mg cartridges; conditioning was performed with 5 ml methanol and 5 ml water, after which 1 ml plasma that had previously been spiked with 5 microM S-Ag was applied. Washing was done with 6 ml water and elution, with 4 ml methanol. After evaporation to dryness, residues were dissolved in 400 microliters anhydrous ethanol and 12-48 microliters was injected onto the HPLC system. Blank plasma from healthy donors showed the random presence of a small interference eluting at the retention time of R-Rog, precluding the accurate quantification of R-Rog concentrations below 2.5 microM. Reproducibility assays demonstrated the need to use an internal standard. Taking into account the internal standard, at 2.5 microM the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 10.5% and 21.0% for R-Rog 5.5% and 8.7% for S-Rog, 7.6% and 20.8% for R-Nox and 11.7% and 6.4% for S-Nox, respectively. The detection limit was 2.5 microM for R-Rog, 0.5 microM for S-Rog, 0.25 microM for R-Nox and 0.5 microM for S-Nox. Linearity was satisfactory at concentrations ranging from 2.5 to 10 microM for R-Rog, from 0.5 to 10 microM for S-Rog, from 0.25 to 2.5 microM for R-Nox and from 0.50 to 2.5 microM for S-Nox. This assay was applied to plasma obtained from rog-letimide-treated breast cancer patients receiving conventional oral doses and demonstrated its feasibility with regard to sensitivity. The preliminary pharmacokinetic results reported herein suggest for the first time that both the R-Rog and S-Rog isomers are metabolized into rogletimide-N-oxide.