Chromatographic studies of changes in binding of sulfonylurea drugs to human serum albumin due to glycation and fatty acids

This report examines the use of high-performance affinity chromatography as a screening tool for studying the change in binding by sulfonylurea drugs to the protein human serum albumin (HSA) during diabetes. The effects of both the non-enzymatic glycation of HSA and the presence of fatty acids on these interactions were considered using a zonal elution format. It was found that there was a significant increase (i.e., 2.7- to 3.6-fold) in the relative retention of several sulfonylurea drugs (i.e., acetohexamide, tolbutamide, glybenclamide and gliclazide) on columns containing normal versus glycated HSA. The addition of various long chain fatty acids to the mobile phase gave the same trend in retention for the tested drugs on both the HSA and glycated HSA columns, generally leading to lower binding. Most of the fatty acids examined produced similar or moderately different relative shifts in retention; however, palmitic acid was found to produce a much larger change in retention on columns containing glycated HSA versus normal HSA under the conditions used in this study.