Stopped‐flow chemiluminescence determination of the anticancer drug capecitabine: Application in pharmaceutical analysis and drug‐delivery systems

Abstract

Capecitabine is a chemotherapeutic agent used for the treatment of patients with metastatic cancers. This study aimed at determining the drug capecitabine in a simple chemiluminescence (CL) system of acidic potassium permanganate using the stopped‐flow injection technique. Statistical methods were used to detect optimum conditions. The method showed two linear calibration ranges from 6.7 × 10−6 to 6.7 × 10−5 mol L−1 and from 6.7 × 10−5 to 2.7 × 10−3 mol L−1 with a detection limit of 1.5 × 10−6 mol L−1. Chitosan‐modified magnetic nanoparticles were studied in the drug‐delivery experiments. According to the pH sensitivity of chitosan and low pH values in tumour cells, the chitosan‐coated magnetic nanoparticles could provide a good targeting drug‐delivery system to tumour sites. To evaluate the applicability of the method, the capecitabine‐loaded magnetic chitosan nanoparticles were synthesized with two different cross‐linkers; loading and releasing rates of the drug were investigated using the proposed CL method and an ultraviolet–visible light spectrophotometric method (absorption at 305 nm). The results showed a good correlation between the two methods, and it was found that the synthesized chitosan‐modified magnetic nanoparticles could be used for pH‐dependent release of capecitabine in cancer cells. Moreover, determination of capecitabine in tablets and synthetic samples was performed.

Preparation of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microspheres for Selective Solid-Phase Extraction of Capecitabine in Urine Samples

“…Capecitabine (CAP) is an oral 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) prodrug that is commonly used to treat patients with colorectal and breast cancer [ 1 , 2 ]. The entire molecule can be rapidly and completely absorbed through the gastrointestinal wall after ingestion; therefore, the amount of residual drug in bodily fluids can be used to evaluate its pharmacokinetics [ 3 , 4 ].…”