Dissociation constant, pKa value, is a significant physicochemical characteristic of an active pharmaceutical substance due to its important impact on different pharmacocinetic properties. Therefore the knowledge of this value of drug candidates and interest in the development of new methods for its determination, especially in early stages of drug discovery, is of great importance, since the traditional techniques, such as potenciometry and spectrophotometry, cannot meet the standards of the modern approaches to the search for new drugs, which demands the development of high-throughput methods for fast and effective determination of pKa value.
Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with linear pH gradient was presented as a suitable high-thorughput method for pKa determination, since it is appropriate for analytes in small amounts and with poor solubility. Nevertheless we did not find this method to be widely used, which is why we decided to study it in terms of its advantages and disadvantages. The evaluation of pH gradient RF HPLC applicability for pKa determination was studied on series of 40 analytes with different properties. We first carried out two methanol gradient runs at two different gradient times for each analyte, from which a proper methanol content in mobile phase was evaluated for further chromatographic analysis which were first carried out on HPLC sistem with binary and later with quaternary pump. Finally we managed to calculate and compare pKa values for 31 analytes with reference values. The results showed quite satisfying correlation. We learned that next to proper choice of equipment the most important part of the method represents the column chemistry and a linear pH gradient, which is provided by appropriate buffer solution. We demonstrated that the method cannot be properly used with hydrophilic compounds. As an important contribution to the existing method we introduced an additional procedure of buffer linearization for pH gradient. Based on our experience we can confirm great potential of RF HPLC method for pKa determination, although some optimization of the method would be needed for automated use (such as the choice of stationary phase used for HPLC analysis).
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