Application of liquid chromatography in defining the interaction of newly synthesized chalcones and related compounds with human serum albumin

Defining the interaction of newly synthesized compounds with plasma proteins is an important step in the drug development process. Chromatographic techniques can be successfully used in predicting the biopharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic properties of newly synthesized compounds. The aim of this study is to investigate and isolate the most important molecular properties that affect the interaction of 20 newly synthesized chalcones and commercial compounds (lopinavir, ritonavir, darunavir and ivermectin) with human serum albumin (HSA). The retention behavior of the selected compounds was tested on a CHIRALPAK?HSA column. A mixture of phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and isopropanol (80:20(v/v)) was used as the mobile phase, and the support vector method was used to form the QSRR model. Based on the obtained values of retention parameters, it was observed that halogenated derivatives show the strongest, and methylated chalcone derivatives the weakest interaction with HSA. By correlating the retention and physicochemical properties of the tested compounds, it was shown that the structural (SDSCH) and electronic properties (MAXQ, EEM_F1) groups have the greatest influence on the retention behavior and interaction of the tested compounds with HSA. The obtained QSRR model can be applied in the prediction of retention characteristics of new, structurally related chalcone derivatives on HSA stationary phase.