Polysorbate 80 Profiling by HPLC with Mass and Charged Aerosol Detection
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
APPLICATION NOTE 73979 Polysorbate 80 profiling by HPLC with mass and charged aerosol detection Authors: Mauro De Pra, Denis A. Ispan, Katherine Lovejoy, Sylvia Grosse, Stephan Meding, Frank Steiner Thermo Fisher Scientific, Germering, Germany Keywords: Vanquish Flex, Vanquish Duo, ISQ EM, CAD, inverse gradient, Tween, polysorbate, surfactants, formulations, charged aerosol detection, single quadrupole, mass detection, ultra high performance liquid chromatography, excipient Application benefits • HPLC-CAD method can detect batch-to-batch • Mass detection with ISQ EM enables identity assignment discrepancies of the main species in polysorbate 80 • Polysorbate 80 quality issues in raw material are detected • The CAD and ISQ EM mass detector are easy to operate, before the surfactant is used in the drug formulation even by operators without previous experience with nebulizer or MS based detectors • Optimized reversed-phase gradient enables fingerprinting of polysorbate 80 Goal • Charged aerosol detector (CAD) provides high-sensitivity Provide an HPLC method suitable for fingerprinting of detection polysorbate 80 samples and detect variability between different suppliers, grades, and production batches. • Inverse gradient enables uniform response under gradient conditions and eliminates the need of individual standards Introduction shed some light on this topic. For instance, a variation Polysorbate (PS) is a non-ionic surfactant widely used in the ester population may affect the critical micelle in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, cosmetic, and concentration, which in turn can affect the solubility of free beverage formulations. Several types of polysorbate fatty acids2 present in the PS as degradation impurities. are available, with PS 20, PS 60, and PS 80 being More often, the different behaviors resulting from lot-to-lot most frequently used in pharmaceutical products. All variability of PS cannot be easily explained. Nonetheless, commercially available PS are complex mixtures of several understanding the quality of PS 80 by analyzing the raw hundred molecules, including low-level components. material is a potential time- and cost-saving approach, This complexity is a consequence of the inherently as it would decrease the need of costly root-cause heterogeneous raw materials used for the synthesis and analyses when formulations obtained with a particular the synthetic pathway that leads to the final product. batch of PS do not meet the required standards. A full Considering PS 80, the product is obtained by esterification quantitative characterization of a PS sample is, with the of oleic acid with sorbitan polyoxyehthylene (POE) current standard approach, an extremely complex task (Figure 1). The oleic acid originates from natural sources that consumes considerable analytical resources. While and contains other fatty acid impurities including, but quantification of every component of a PS is not required, not limited to, palmitic, linoleic, and stearic acids. These a simple analytical technique capable of profiling the impurities will participate in the esterification reactions, main features of the PS sample and enabling lot-to-lot thereby increasing complexity. The additional presence of comparison is highly desirable. the precursor and side product of sorbitan, respectively sorbitol and isosorbide, along with different degrees of In this work, we propose an HPLC-based approach ethoxylation of main and by-products, results in a mixture to monitor the characteristics of PS 80 samples that of hundreds of components. provides operational simplicity while generating a high degree of information. The reversed-phase method is highly optimized to ensure sufficient separation of different HO(CH CH O) (OCH2CH2)zOH 2 2 w compound classes within a reasonable run time. For detection, the Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Charged (OCH CH ) OH 2 2 y Aerosol Detector, which is the instrument of choice for O detection of PS and other surfactants,3,4,5,6 is used. (OCH2CH2)xOH The Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Duo UHPLC System for Inverse Gradient seamlessly incorporates two independent HO(CH2CH2O)w O flow-delivery systems that simultaneously deliver the analytical and compensation gradients. Setting up the compensation flow is facilitated by a user-friendly wizard O (OCH CH ) OH 2 2 x in Thermo Scientific™ Chromeleon™ Chromatography Data Figure 1. Structure of POE sorbitan (top) and POE isosorbide (bottom). These species are found in polysorbates along with their fatty System (CDS). The inverse gradient option allows acid esters. The nature of the fatty acid, the degree of esterification, and CAD-based quantitation without standards even under the number of oxyethylene units contribute to the overall complexity of gradient conditions.7 polysorbates. The Thermo Scientific™ ISQ™ EM single quadrupole The control of PS as chemical raw material for mass detector features intuitive setting of the detection (bio)pharmaceutical formulations is difficult because of parameters through the AutoSpray algorithm. It provides the complexity described above. Nevertheless, such a mass range up to m/z 2000 allowing for the mass control is needed since variations from lot to lot are detection of high-molecular weight PS species such as expected to occur. Variation of the relative population singly-charged di-ester and doubly charged tri- and tetra- of esters, and polyoxyethylated polyols, can affect the ester ions. Obtained masses of the variety of PS species behavior of PS 80 as an excipient in biotherapeutic allows the deduction of the identity of main components, formulations. The link between the composition of PS complementing the quantitative, mass selective CAD and its properties is still not fully understood,1 although analysis with qualitative information. there have been hypotheses put forth that attempted to 2 Experimental Instrumentation Chemicals • Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Flex UHPLC system and • Deionized water, 18.2 MΩ·cm resistivity or higher Thermo Scientific Vanquish Flex Duo UHPLC system consisting of: • Fisher Scientific™ Acetonitrile, Optima™ LC/MS grade (P/N A955-212) – Vanquish Dual Pump F (used in CAD experiments) (P/N VF-P32-A) • Fisher Scientific™ Formic acid, Optima™ LC/MS grade (P/N A117-50) – Vanquish Quaternary Pump F (used in ISQ EM experiments) (P/N VF-P20-A) • Fisher Scientific™ Isopropanol, Optima™ LC/MS grade (P/N A461-212) – Vanquish System Base (P/N VF-S01-A-02) • Fisher Scientific™ Ammonium formate, Optima™ – Vanquish Sampler FT (P/N VF-A10-A) LC/MS grade (P/N A115-50) – Vanquish Column Compartment H (P/N VH-C10-A-02) – Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ Charged Aerosol Three PS 80 samples were purchased from Croda Inc. and Detector H (P/N VH-D20-A) one sample from Avantor (Table 1). • Thermo Scientific™ ISQ™ EM single quadrupole mass Table 1. PS 80 samples spectrometer (P/N ISQEM-ESI) Identification • Vanquish Duo for Inverse Gradient Kit (P/N 6036.2010) Product name used in Vendor Product name code the document Sample and solvents preparation Super Refined™ Polysorbate SR48833 SA1 PS 80 samples were prepared in 25 mL volumetric flasks 80-LQ-(MH) diluted with deionized water at a final concentration of Croda Super Refined™ Polysorbate SR40925 SA2 Inc. 80 POA-(LQ)-(MH) 2.5 mg/mL for sample SA1, which was used for the Tween™ 80 HP-LQ-(MH) SD43361 SA3 dilutions, and at 1 mg/mL for all the other samples. Polysorbate 80, N. F. Multi- Avantor Compendial J.T. Baker 4117-02 SB4 Eluent A (Table 2) was prepared by dissolving ammonium TWEEN 80 HP-LQ-(MH) formate in deionized water at the concentration of 5 mM. Afterwards, the pH of the eluent was adjusted to pH 4.8 with formic acid. Sample handling • Fisher Scientific™ Fisherbrand™ Mini Vortex Mixer Method parameters (P/N 14-955-152) Table 2. LC method • Glass Vials (amber, 2 mL), Fisher Scientific™ Parameter Value (P/N 03-391-6) Thermo Scientific™ Accucore™ C18 Column • Vial Caps with Septum (Silicone/PTFE), Fisher Scientific™ 150 × 2.1 mm; 2.6 µm, P/N 17126-152130 A – 5 mM ammonium formate, pH 4.8 (P/N 13-622-292) Mobile phase B – 50/50 isopropanol/acetonitrile (v/v) • Thermo Scientific™ Orion™ 3-Star Benchtop pH Meter Time (min) %B Time (min) %B (P/N 13-644-928) 0 9 26 85 3 9 35 100 • Thermo Scientific™ Finnpipette™ F1 Variable Volume Gradient 10 22 45 100 10 57 46 9 Pipettes (P/N 14-386-309N) 21 69 56 9 21 84 The Fisher Scientific product codes can be unique to different countries; Flow rate 0.4 mL/min the codes given above should be compatible across the EU and USA. Autosampler temp. 6 °C 50 °C forced air mode, fan speed 5 Column temp. 50 °C active pre-heater Injection volume 10 µL Injection wash solvent 10/90 water/isopropanol (v/v) 3 Table 3. CAD detector settings Results and discussion The HPLC method was developed and optimized using Parameter Value CAD to maximize the number of observed peaks while Evaporator temperature 50 °C maintaining a reasonable run time below one hour. The Data collection rate 20 Hz profiles obtained by CAD for PS 80 from different vendors Filter 3.6 s and batches are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, where Power function 1.5 both standard and inverse gradient methods were applied. The chromatograms clearly showed four different groups Table 4. ISQ EM mass detector settings of peak clusters. This grouping will be used for further Parameter Value discussion and comparison of elution profiles. Even Ionization mode HESI though the profile of the different PS 80 samples is similar, Easy mode. Setting for sensitivity was 1; differences in the relative intensity are present. For both Source setting setting for mobile phase volatility was 3; inverse gradient and standard gradient, the main peaks in setting for thermally labile sample was 1 Groups 2 and 3 differ in height depending on the sample: Method type Scan mode, profile the peak heights for SB4 and SA3 are the lowest, and Polarity Positive Mass range full scan m/z 350–2000 quite comparable to each other; the most intense peaks Source CID voltage 0 V in Group 2 and Group 3 are detected for SA2.