High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is widely used in the separation and analysis of cyclosporine A (CsA). Analyzing the chromatographic behavior of CsA is key to the purification of CsA by preparative HPLC. In this study, the retention behavior of CsA on the C18 column using mobile phases of methanol-water and acetonitrile-water was compared. The retention time of CsA was sensitive to the change in the ratio of the organic solvent. When 84%-88% methanol or 75%-85% acetonitrile was used, the retention factor (k) was in the range of 3-7. The change in the peak shape of CsA was investigated with loading amounts of 5, 25, 50, 100, and 500 mg. With an increase in sample loading, the peak shape of CsA in both mobile phases changed from symmetric to tailing, and the retention time reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the removal of impurities that were eluted before CsA during the purification. In addition, the peak shapes of CsA in methanol-water and acetonitrile-water were similar in the tested concentration range. This indicates that it was not possible to tune the peak shape of CsA by changing the organic solvent. Adsorption isotherms were obtained to describe the retention behavior of CsA. When the mass concentration of CsA in the mobile phase was low, the effect of the organic solvent ratio on the adsorption capacity of CsA on the C18 stationary phase was not distinct. With an increase in the solute mass concentration above 0.5 g/L, the reduced proportion of organic solvent helped improve the adsorption capacity of CsA. When the mass concentration of CsA in the mobile phase reached 5 g/L, the adsorption capacities were 24.9 g/L in 88% methanol and 40.8 g/L in 84% methanol. The adsorption capacity of CsA in acetonitrile-water was higher than that in methanol-water. When the mass concentration of CsA was 5 g/L, the adsorption capacity increased to 46.4 g/L in 75% acetonitrile. Scatchard analysis showed that the slope of the adsorption isotherm decreased gradually, which was consistent with trend observed in the Langmuir adsorption isotherm for the shape of the Langmuir peak (i.e. trailing peak). When the mass concentration of CsA in the mobile phase was between 0.01 g/L and 0.03 g/L, the slope of the curve decreased significantly, and the peak shape of CsA rapidly tailed with increasing loading amount. However, when using a mobile phase with a lower proportion of organic solvent (84% methanol or 75% acetonitrile), this trend was weakened. The adsorption data of CsA were fitted to models. The Langmuir model was found to be suitable for the methanol-water mobile phase, and the Moreau model for the acetonitrile-water mobile phase. The model parameters indicated that the monolayer adsorption of CsA occurred on the C18 stationary phase in both mobile phases, the difference being that more intermolecular interactions between CsA occurred in the acetonitrile-water mobile phase, resulting in a higher adsorption capacity. In methanol-water, the intermolecular interactions between CsA were inhibited by methanol due to its role as a proton donor. As an aprotic solvent, acetonitrile could only weakly inhibit these interactions; hence, the interactions could be improved by increasing the acetonitrile proportion. As the proportion of acetonitrile changed from 85% to 75%, the saturated adsorption capacity increased from 123 g/L to 197 g/L, while the interaction constant decreased from 0.618 to 0.588. Finally, CsA was purified using the conditions of 0-60 min 65%-75% acetonitrile, 60-80 min 75% acetonitrile, by which the impurity could be controlled to below 0.2%. The results of this study will aid in the purification of CsA by preparative HPLC.
环孢素A(cyclosporine A, CsA)是由11个氨基酸组成的中性环状多肽,是临床拮抗器官和组织移植后排异反应的首选药物。高效液相色谱法广泛应用于CsA的分离分析,开展CsA色谱行为的研究是使用制备高效液相色谱纯化CsA的关键。该文首先在C18固定相上比较了CsA在甲醇-水和乙腈-水两种流动相体系中的保留行为,结果表明其保留时间对有机相比例变化比较敏感。控制甲醇比例在84%~88%,或者乙腈比例在75%~85%, CsA的保留因子(k)在3~7范围内。考察了上样量对CsA峰形的影响。随着上样量增加,在两种流动相体系中,CsA的峰形都由对称开始变得拖尾,保留时间前移。因此在进行CsA纯化时,需要特别注意前杂的去除情况。然后采用吸附等温线描述CsA的保留行为,当流动相中CsA的质量浓度较低时,有机相比例对溶质在固定相上的吸附量影响并不明显。随着溶质的质量浓度增加至0.5 g/L以上,有机相比例降低有助于提高CsA在固定相上的吸附量。和甲醇-水体系相比,在乙腈-水体系中固定相对溶质有更大的吸附容量。用模型对CsA的等温吸附曲线拟合,在甲醇-水体系中符合Langmuir模型,在乙腈-水体系中为Moreau模型。由模型参数可知在两种体系下,CsA在C18固定相上均为单层吸附,区别在于乙腈-水体系中CsA会产生较大的分子间作用力。最后,实验采用0~60 min 65%~75%乙腈、60~80 min 75%乙腈的条件开展了环孢素A纯化的探索实验,可将CsA的杂质控制在0.2%以下。本研究结果对采用制备高效液相色谱纯化CsA具有指导意义。
Keywords: adsorption isotherm; cyclosporine A (CsA); preparative high performance liquid chromatography (prep-HPLC); purification; reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC).