Author(s)

Milan Meloun^1*, Zuzana Ferenčíková¹, Aleš Vrána²

¹Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czech Republic.
²Teva Czech Industries, s.r.o., Opava, Czech Republic.

The mixed dissociation constant of azathioprine—chemically 6-(3-methyl-5-nitroimidazol-4-yl)sulfanyl-7H- purine at various ionic strengths I of range 0.01-0.2, and at temperatures of 25℃ and 37℃, was determined with the use of two different multiwavelength and multivariate treatments of spectral data, SPECFIT32 and SQUAD(84) nonlinear regression analyses and INDICES factor analysis according to a general rule. First, the number of components is determined, and then the spectral responses and concentrations of the components are calculated. Concurrently, the experimental determination of the thermodynamic dissociation constant was in agreement with its computational prediction of the PALLAS programme based on knowledge of the chemical structures of the drug. The factor analysis in the INDICES programme predicts the correct number of two light-absorbing species L- and HL. The thermodynamic dissociation constant of azathioprine was estimated by nonlinear regression of {pKa, I} data, = 8.07(1) at 25℃ and 7.84(1) at 37℃, where the figure in brackets is the standard deviation in last significant digits. The reliability of the dissociation constants of azathioprine was proven with goodness-of-fit tests of the multiwavelength spectrophotometric pH-titration data.

Spectrophotometric Titration, Dissociation Constant, Azathioprine, SPECFIT, SQUAD, INDICES, PALLAS

M. Meloun, Z. Ferenčíková and A. Vrána, "The Thermodynamic Dissociation Constants of Azathioprine by the Nonlinear Regression and Factor Analysis of Multiwavelength Spectrophotometric pH-Titration Data," American Journal of Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2010, pp. 14-24. doi: 10.4236/ajac.2010.11002.