COMPUTER-ASSISTED RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF GRADIENT HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHODS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ANTIBIOTICS

Computer simulation by DryLab G/plus has proved to be an invaluable tool in the rapid development of analytical HPLC methods for antibiotics. A glycopeptide antibiotic under study at this Research Center was taken into consideration as a case study. Retention data from two preliminary experiments have allowed us to perform several simulations which greatly shortened the time normally required for the identification of the optimum gradient conditions. The ''key steps'' in the simulation process have been experimentally verified and a more than satisfactory agreement between calculated and experimental retention times was consistently found. This article presents the preliminary results obtained and proposes an HPLC method for the analysis of a glycopeptide antibiotic. Because of its general approach, the DryLab concept can be extended to any class of chemical compounds not only shortening impressively the HPLC method development time, but also making it possible to adjust/develop a method which takes into account the typical features of the instrument to be used. This last aspect means, among other things, that: (1) HPLC methods already optimized can be transferred from one laboratory to another, differently equipped, without any ''local'' further adjustment or development work and (2) HPLC methods can be optimized ''at a distance'' for other laboratories once a few instrumental parameters have been determined and two exploratory runs have been carried out.