Identification and characterization of Prothionamide degradation impurities by mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy, and ultra high performance liquid chromatography method development

Abstract

Stability-indicating and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry compatible ultra high performance liquid chromatography method was developed for the degradation and drug substances related impurities of Prothionamide. Forced degradation of Prothionamide was carried out under acidic, basic, thermal, oxidative, and photolytic stress conditions. The impurities separation was achieved on Acquity UPLC BEH-C18 (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) with the mobile phase of 10 mm ammonium acetate pH 6.0 and Acetonitrile in a time gradient mode. Related substances by ultra-performance liquid chromatography method was validated according to ICH tripartite guidelines. Degradation products were isolated by Column chromatography and characterized by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, ¹ H, and ¹³ C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The developed related substances method showed adequate specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, linearity (0.4-1.5 μg/mL), precision, and robustness in line with ICH tripartite guidelines for validation of analytical procedures. Limits of detection and quantitation were 0.1 and 0.4 μg/mL, respectively, for Prothionamide and all the impurities. The method was found to be linear with a correlation coefficient > 0.99, precise (%RSD < 5.0), robust and accurate (%recovery 85-115%).

Keywords: degradation impurities; method validation; prothionamide; stress conditions; structural elucidation.