Abstract:
Soluble polymers of linear chains with limited branching and spherical polymers (limit dextrins and sucrose, such as Dextran and Ficoll (Pharmacia Chemicals), yielding lower viscosities, are examined here for the separation of different nucleotides and several anti-AIDS drugs by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The linear polymer forms a network but spherical polymers appear to create a second pseudo-phase. In general, they tend to enhance the solute mobility and reduce peak width; thus, they improve the column efficiency. We observe that the beads of a spherical polymer produce a pseudo-phase even in a very low polymer concentration. The proposed method involving a spherical polymer yields the best separation for twelve deoxyribonucleoside mono-, di- and triphosphates in ca. 10 min. Common anti-AIDS drugs (ddA, ddC, ddI, d4T, AZT) and an AZT metabolite (AZT-glucuronate) are resolved by using conventional micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC). These results not only offer fast and highly sensitive detection techniques for the pharmacokinetics of nucleotides, drugs, and their metabolites, but they also demonstrate an application of the proposed second pseudo-phase involving spherical polymer beads in CZE separations.