Adenosine is a purine nucleoside, composed of adenine attached to a ribose. The major therapeutic uses of adenosine are for treating surgical and nerve pain, pulmonary hypertension, irregular heartbeat, controlling blood pressure during anesthesia/surgery, and for cardiac stress tests. For these indications, adenosine is administered either as a bolus intravenous injection or as an intravenous infusion. Commercially, adenosine is produced by the condensation of ribose and adenine chemically, biochemically, or by fermentation. Ionic impurities that could be present in adenosine preparations are ammonia, chloride, and sulfate. The adenosine monograph in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP35-NF30) currently has color comparison assays for these ions. The color assays are outdated, imprecise, and are subjective assays that potentially expose the analyst to mercury and create hazardous waste. There is an ongoing effort by the USP to review monographs for moderniziation, which includes updating analytical tests, and eliminating or minimizing the use of hazardous chemicals. In the spirit of monograph modernization, we developed ion chromatography (IC) assays for ammonia, and for chloride and sulfate that meet the requirements of the adenosine monograph. Ammonia, as ammonium, was separated on a high-performance cation-exchange column, while the anions were separated on a hydroxide-selective anion-exchange column; columns designed for fast separation of ions. Both the assays require < 5 min per sample, are sensitive, and accurately determine the ions by suppressed conductivity detection. The precisions (retention time RSD < 0.1%, peak area RSD <2.3%), accuracy (average recovery 88-110), and limits of detection, meet the analytical performance characteristics suggested by USP General Chapter .

Ion chromatography assays for ions in adenosine: Possible replacement for color-based assays

247th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.