A Turn-On-Type Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Eco-friendly Method for Nitazoxanide Quantification in Pharmaceutical Dosage Form and Spiked Plasma: Evaluation of Greenness Profile Using Different Assessment Tools

Abstract

A brand-new class of anti-infective drugs that work against bacteria, viruses, and protozoan parasites is nitazoxanide and related thiazolides. Thiazolides have also been shown to cause cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death in cancer cells in recent years. In this study, an eco-friendly, spectrofluorimetric technique that is verified, easy, and sensitive has been proposed for quantifying nitazoxanide (NTZ), a broad-spectrum antiparasitic drug. When NTZ is reduced with zinc (Zn) powder in an acidic media, a highly fluorescent product is produced. To get the highest sensitivity, different experimental conditions impacting the response were examined and optimized. Following excitation at 299 nm, scanning of the fluorescent product was done at 440 nm. The intensity of the fluorescence was proportional to the drug concentration in the range of 0.1-0.6 μg/mL. The approach was validated according to International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines, and the outcome was satisfactory. The detection and quantitation limits were calculated to be 0.013 and 0.038 μg/mL, respectively. The suggested technique was successful in analyzing commercially available NTZ dosage forms. Furthermore, the proposed technique was used to assess NTZ levels in human plasma and it was bio-analytically validated according to European Medicines Agency (EMA) guidelines. The suggested method can be used in quality control laboratories as well as in pharmacokinetic studies. In order to picture the green profile of the developed method, four greenness assessment tools have been applied. National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), analytical Eco-Scale Assessment (ESA), Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) and Analytical Greenness metric (AGREE) are the relatively most widely used metrics. So, they were utilized to perform a detailed greenness comparison between the proposed method and some of the reported methods for the determination of NTZ. The developed method was found to be an excellent green method with the highest AGREE score.

Keywords: Dosage form; Green profile; Nitazoxanide; Plasma; Reduction; Spectrofluorimetry.

Fig. 1

Chemical structure of nitazoxanide (NTZ)

Fig. 2

A Excitation (a, a-) and emission (b, b-) spectra of blank and RNTZ product, respectively. B Three-dimension plot for Excitation and emission spectra of blank and RNTZ product, respectively

Scheme 1

Reduction of NTZ to fluorescent product, RNTZ

Fig. 3

A Effect of zinc metal dust amount on the formation of RNTZ fluorophore (0.3 μg/mL). B Effect of volume of HCl on the formation of RNTZ fluorophore (0.3 μg/mL). C Effect of reaction time on the formation of RNTZ fluorophore (0.3 μg/mL). D Effect of various buffer on the formation of RNTZ fluorophore (0.3 μg/mL)

Fig. 4

Effect of diluting solvents on the formation of RNTZ fluorophore (0.3 μg/mL)