Biomimetic chromatography—A novel application of the chromatographic principles

Biomimetic chromatography is the name of the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) methods that apply stationary phases containing proteins and phospholipids that can mimic the biological environment where drug molecules distribute. The applied mobile phases are aqueous organic with a pH of 7.4 to imitate physiological conditions that would be encountered in the human body. The calibrated retention of molecules on biomimetic stationary phases reveals a compound's affinity to proteins and phospholipids, which can be used to model the biological and environmental fate of molecules. This technology, when standardised, enables the prediction of in vivo partition and distribution behaviour of compounds and aids the selection of the best compounds for further studies to become a drug molecule. Applying biomimetic chromatographic measurements helps reduce the number of animal experiments during the drug discovery process. New biomimetic stationary phases, such as sphingomyelin and phosphatidylethanolamine, widen the application to the modelling of blood–brain barrier distribution and lung tissue binding. Recently, the measured properties have also been used to predict toxicity, such as phospholipidosis and cardiotoxicity. The aquatic toxicity of drugs and pesticides can be predicted using biomimetic chromatographic data. Biomimetic chromatographic separation methods may also be extended in the future to predict protein and receptor binding kinetics. The development of new biomimetic stationary phases and new prediction models will further accelerate the widespread application of this analytical method.