This work characterizes the thermodynamic processes involved in the binding and separation of (R)- and (S)-warfarin on a high-performance human serum albumin (HSA) column. Frontal analysis was used to determine the strength and degree of binding for each enantiomer. (R)- and (S)-warfarin were found to bind at the same region on HSA; however, (R)-warfarin had a larger number of column binding sites. The number of binding sites for both enantiomers showed a slight increase with temperature. The total changes in free energy for (R)- and (S)-warfarin binding were similar at 37 degrees C, but the contribution due to entropy was greater for the R-enantiomer. These results suggested that (R)-warfarin was interacting mainly with the binding site interior, while (S)-warfarin interacted more with the site's outer surface. This model was confirmed by examining the retention of (R)- and (S)-warfarin on the HSA column under various pH, ionic strength, and organic modifier conditions. The different changes in entropy for these solutes made it possible to vary their separation by changing column temperature. Both thermodynamic properties and column binding capacities were found to be important in determining the degree of separation obtained for these compounds.

This work used plate height measurements to investigate the kinetics of (R)- and (S)-warfarin binding to an immobilized HSA column. The dissociation rate constants for (R)- and (S)-warfarin on this column increased from 0.06 to 1.9 s-1 and from 0.06 to 0.36 s-1 between 4 and 45 degrees C. The corresponding association rate constants increased from 2.4 x 10(4) to 3.2 x 10(5) M-1 s-1 for (R)-warfarin and from 4.4 x 10(4) to 7.2 x 10(4) M-1 s-1 for (S)-warfarin over the same temperature range. From the dissociation data, it was found that an increase in temperature led to a large decrease in the plate height due to stationary phase mass transfer for both enantiomers. Further studies indicated that (R)- and (S)-warfarin had similar activation energies for their binding to HSA. For (R)-warfarin, most of this energy requirement was due to the change in enthalpy of the system, while for (S)-warfarin, it was mainly due to the change in entropy. All of these results agree with an earlier model, in which (R)- and (S)-warfarin were proposed to interact with regions on the interior and exterior of HSA, respectively. In addition, these results offer a number of useful insights into the mechanisms of protein-based chiral separations.

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This study examined how the binding capacities and equilibrium constants measured by frontal analysis are affected by ligand heterogeneity in affinity columns. Equations derived for n- and two-site systems gave good agreement with results obtained for the binding of L-thyroxine to a column containing human serum albumin (HSA) and for the binding of (R)-warfarin to coupled columns containing HSA or pigeon serum albumin. The same equations were used to examine how different degrees of ligand heterogeneity affected the apparent binding capacities or equilibrium constants measured using the linear range of double-reciprocal frontal analysis plots. A large proportion of two-site systems gave good estimates (i.e., less than 10-20% error) for the true total column capacity and for the association constant of the highest affinity ligand in the column. A smaller, but still appreciable, fraction of all three- and four-site cases also produced good estimates of these values. The results of this work are not limited to protein-based affinity columns but should be applicable to any type of stationary phase that has well-defined binding regions and relatively fast, reversible interactions with solutes.

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