APPLICATION OF CHEMOMETRICALLY PROCESSED CHROMATOGRAPHIC DATA FOR PHARMACOLOGICALLY RELEVANT CLASSIFICATION OF ANTIHISTAMINE DRUGS

For a set of 22 drugs known to modify physiological effects of endogenous histamine, high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) retention data were determined employing two reversed-phase columns, seven compositions of methanol-buffer eluent and three pH values (acidic, neutral and alkaline) of the buffer. Logarithms of capacity factors, normalized to 100% buffer eluent (log k(w)'), were determined by extrapolation of the respective data in five HPLC systems studied. Chemometric analysis of the 5 x 22 matrix of log k(w)' data obtained in five HPLC systems for 22 drug solutes allowed the extraction of two main principal components which accounted for 96% of total data variance. The distribution of individual drugs on the plane determined by the two first principal component axes forms the patterns, which are in excellent agreement with the established pharmacological classification of the structurally diverse compounds studied. It was demonstrated that systematic information extracted by chemometric analysis of behaviour of solutes in diverse HPLC systems has direct relevance to the pharmacological properties of the solutes. The approach developed here should facilitate the preselection of drug candidates, at the same time reducing the costs and the use of laboratory animals.