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Capillary electrophoresis is a powerful technique for the analysis of polar chiral compounds and has been widely accepted for analytical enantioseparations of drug compounds in pharmaceuticals and biological media. In addition, many mechanistic studies have been conducted in an attempt to rationalize enantioseparations in combination with spectroscopic and computational techniques. The present review will focus on recent examples of mechanistic aspects and summarize recent applications of stereoselective pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis published between January 2017 and November 2020. Various separation modes including electrokinetic chromatography in combination with several detection modes including laser-induced fluorescence, mass spectrometry and contactless conductivity detection will be discussed. A general trend also observed in other analytical techniques is the application of quality by design principles in method development and optimization.

In the present study, the enantioseparation of the ll- and dd-enantiomers of the dipeptides Ala-Phe, Ala-phenylglycine (Phg), Ala-homoPhe, Ala-β-Phe, Gly-Phe and β-Ala-Phe was studied by capillary electrophoresis in the presence of native α-, β- and γ-cyclodextrin (CD) as well as their methyl and hydroxypropyl derivatives. Separations were performed under standardized conditions in fused-silica capillaries at pH 2.5, 3.5 and 9.5. All analyte enantiomers could be separated at acidic pH under at least one of the experimental conditions. β-CDs proved to be more universal chiral selectors than α- and γ-CDs. Only few alkaline conditions led to an enantioseparation. For a given dipeptide, the enantiomer migration order depended on the type of CD with regard to cavity size and degree of substitution. Little effect was found with regard to the structure of the dipeptides. pH-dependent reversal of the enantiomer migration order upon increasing the pH from 2.5 to 3.5 was observed for all dipeptides with at least one of the β-CD derivatives. In the case of β-CD, analysis of the complexation constants and the apparent limiting mobilities of the diastereomeric peptide enantiomer-CD complexes revealed, that the enantiomer migration order of Ala-Phe, Ala-homoPhe and Ala-β-Phe was determined by the stereoselective complexation by β-CD at pH 2.5. At pH 3.5 opposite chiral recognition of the enantiomers by β-CD was found for Ala-Phe and Ala-β-Phe resulting in the reversed migration order. In contrast, chiral recognition did not change in the case of Ala-homoPhe, but reversal of the enantiomer migration order was based on the apparent mobility of the diastereomeric analyte-CD complexes.

The synergistic effect of chiral ionic liquids composed of tetraalkylammonium ions and the amino acids Asn, Asp or Pro on the enantioseparations of dipeptides mediated by β-cyclodextrin and 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin in capillary electrophoresis was studied. Addition of a chiral ionic liquid resulted in a concentration-dependent increase in the enantioresolutions compared to the sole presence of a cyclodextrin in the background electrolyte. The extent varied with the tetraalkylammonium cation (tetramethylammonium versus tetrabutylammonium) as well as the amino acid component of the ionic liquid. The presence of a chiral ionic liquid did not counteract the pH-dependent reversal of the enantiomer migration order of the dipeptides Ala-Phe, Ala-Tyr and Phe-Phe when increasing the pH of the background electrolyte from 2.5 to 3.5. Comparing the effect of a chiral ionic liquid based on Asp with the addition of equimolar concentrations of the individual components of the ionic liquid, a diverse picture was observed. In some cases, higher resolution values were obtained with the chiral ionic liquid, while for other cases superior enantioseparations were obtained upon separate addition of the amino acid component and a tetraalkylammonium chloride. With regard to the stereochemistry of the amino acid, a superior effect was typically observed using the l -configured amino acid, but in some cases higher resolution values were found in the presence of d -Asp. The rationale for the diverse observations is not obvious and may be due to the zwitterionic nature of analytes as well as the amino acid component of the chiral ionic liquid.

The separation of the ll- and dd-enantiomers of the dipeptides Ala-Phe, Ala-phenylglycine (Phg), Ala-homoPhe, Ala-β-Phe, Gly-Phe and β-Ala-Phe was studied by capillary electrophoresis in the presence of negatively charged α-, β- and γ-cyclodextrin (CD) derivatives. Analysis was performed under standardized conditions in fused-silica capillaries at pH 2.5, 3.5 and 5.3. All analyte enantiomers could be separated at pH 2.5 under at least one of the experimental conditions. Especially β-CD derivatives proved to be effective chiral selectors. The enantiomer migration order depended on CD cavity size and substituent type, while peptide structure had only a minor effect. Upon increasing the pH from 2.5 to 5.3, reversal of the enantiomer migration order was observed frequently. Investigation of the apparent and, in the case of randomly substituted CDs, averaged complexation constants and mobilities of the diastereomeric peptide enantiomer-CD complexes indicated that in most cases the migration order in the presence of sulfated α-, β- and γ-CD and heptakis(6-O-sulfo)-β-CD could be explained by the stronger binding of the second migrating analyte by the CD at pH 2.5. However, in few cases the weaker bound enantiomer migrated second, which could be attributed to the higher mobility of the respective CD complexes. At pH 5.3, similar data were obtained for sulfated β-CD and heptakis(6-O-sulfo)-β-CD, i.e. the strength of the complexes determined the migration order for some peptides, while the migration sequence was based on the apparent (and averaged) mobility of the diastereomeric analyte-CD complexes in other cases.

Asymmetric sulfoxides is a particular case of chirality that may be found in natural as well as synthetic products. Twenty-four original molecules containing a sulfur atom as a centre of chirality were analyzed in supercritical fluid chromatography on seven polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSP) with carbon dioxide - methanol mobile phases. While all the tested CSP provided enantioseparation for a large part of the racemates, chlorinated cellulosic phases proved to be both highly retentive and highly enantioselective towards these species. Favourable structural features were determined by careful comparison of the enantioseparation of the probe molecules. Molecular modelling studies indicate that U-shaped (folded) conformations were most favorable to achieve high enantioresolution on these CSP, while linear (extended) conformations were not so clearly discriminated. For a subset of these species adopting different conformations, a broad range of mobile phase compositions, ranging from 20 to 100% methanol in carbon dioxide, were investigated. While retention decreased continuously in this range, enantioseparation varied in a non-monotonous fashion. Abrupt changes in the tendency curves of retention and selectivity were observed when methanol proportion reaches about 60%, suggesting that a change in the conformation of the analytes and/or chiral selector is occurring at this point.