An advanced automation platform coupled with mass spectrometry for investigating in vitro human skin permeation of UV filters and excipients in sunscreen products

Abstract

Rationale Systemic absorption of UV‐filtering chemicals following topical application of sunscreens may present a safety concern. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had recommended an in vitro skin permeation test (IVPT) to evaluate the potential of this safety risk for the evaluation of sunscreens prior to clinical studies. Therefore, a sensitive and robust bioanalytical method(s) were required for IVPT studies of different topical sunscreen products. Methods An analytical procedure to quantitate sunscreen UV‐filtering components and excipients in IVPT samples including avobenzone, octocrylene, oxybenzone, ecamsule, methylparaben and propylparaben was developed employing a RapidFire 360 robotic sample delivery system coupled with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The analytical procedure was developed and validated according to the requirements of the FDA Bioanalytical Method Validation Guidance for Industry (2018). Results The analytical method provided a turnaround time of 12 seconds per sample and was determined to be accurate, precise, specific, and linear over the corresponding analytical ranges. The validated method was successfully applied for two IVPT studies for evaluating the skin permeation potential of UV‐filtering chemicals and assisting with the selection of the sunscreen products for the clinical study conducted by the FDA. Conclusions This work highlights the first analytical procedure that has applied a non‐chromatographic‐MS/MS automation platform to an in vitro biopharmaceutics study. The analytical platform simultaneously quantitated four UV filters and two excipients in complex media to evaluate their permeation in IVPT studies. The sample throughput and analytical performance of advanced automation platforms indicate their analytical procedure has the potential to significantly advance the efficiency of IVPT studies to evaluate permeation of a wide variety of UV chemical filters and excipients for topical OTC sunscreen products.

Methodologies to Evaluate the Hair Follicle-Targeted Drug Delivery Provided by Nanoparticles

“…As a rule, chromatographic methods are used to fulfill the selectivity requirement. Usually, the most used types of detectors are UV or diode array [ 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 ], fluorescence [ 88 , 89 ], and mass spectrophotometry [ 90 , 91 , 92 ], depending on the nature of the analyzed drug.…”