Impact of biological buffers and chelators on Fenton-like reactions in the context of poloxamer 188 degradation

Fenton-like reagents serve as useful tools to induce oxidative stress in forced degradation studies of surfactants, providing a relevant model due to the possible presence of trace amounts of transition metal ions and peroxides in liquid drug formulations. It is known that catalytic reactivity of transition metal ions heavily depends on the ligands present in the solution and that it differs between buffer systems. Herein, we compare the influence of common buffers and chelating agents on poloxamer 188 (P188) degradation by using a fast-gradient reversed phase chromatography with charged aerosol detection (LC-CAD) and automatic sample preparation. These findings support root-cause analysis of P188 loss and provide insight into the reactivity of Fenton-like reagents in buffered systems.