APPLICATION OF SPHERICAL AND OTHER POLYMERS IN CAPILLARY ZONE ELECTROPHORESIS - SEPARATION OF ANTIVIRAL DRUGS AND DEOXYRIBONUCLEOSIDE PHOSPHATES BY DIFFERENT PRINCIPLES

Soluble polymers of linear chains with limited branching and spherical polymers (limit dextrins and sucrose, such as Dextran and Ficoll (Pha rmacia Chemicals), yielding lower viscosities, are examined here for t he separation of different nucleotides and several anti-AIDS drugs by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The linear polymer forms a netwo rk, but spherical polymers appear to create a second pseudo-phase. In general, they tend to enhance the solute mobility and reduce peak widt h; thus, they improve the column efficiency. We observe that the beads of a spherical polymer produce a pseudo-phase even in a very low poly mer concentration. The proposed method involving a spherical polymer y ields the best separation for twelve deoxyribonucleoside mono-, di- an d triphosphates in ca. 10 min. Common anti-AIDS drugs (ddA, ddC, ddl, d4T, AZT) and an AZT metabolite (AZT-glucuronate) are resolved by usin g conventional micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) . These results not only offer fast and highly sensitive detection tec hniques for the pharmacokinetics of nucleotides, drugs, and their meta bolites, but they also demonstrate an application of the proposed seco nd pseudo-phase involving spherical polymer beads in CZE separations.