Investigation of enantioselective separation of quinolonecarboxylic acids by capillary zone electrophoresis using vancomycin as a chiral selector

When a chiral selector that is a pharmaceutical compound is added to the separation buffer in capillary electrophoresis, the enantioselectivity and the mobility of analytes which interact with that chiral selector may be altered. The changes in enantioselectivity and mobility of the analyte are a function of the strength of the affinity interaction, which depends on the structure of each. The macrocyclic antibiotic vancomycin contains a variety of functionalities that are known to be useful for enantioselective interactions (e.g., hydrogen bonding groups, hydrophobic pockets, aromatic groups, amide linkages). Capillary electrophoresis with vancomycin as a buffer additive was used to separate the enantiomers of different compounds. In this study, the chiral separation of quinolonecarboxylic acids that exhibit marked antibacterial activity and of related compounds was achieved by capillary electrophoresis using vancomycin. The correlations between the separation parameters and analyte structures were investigated. The molecular interaction, which is based on the differences of structure, and the effect of experimental parameters on the enantioselective separation between the quinolonecarboxylic acids and vancomycin are discussed.