Affinity capillary electrophoresis in pharmaceutics.

The technique of Affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) is a useful tool to characterize complexation and partition equilibria. A wide range of applications in pharmaceutics has been presented: the determination of pK A values, of association constants between drugs and cyclodextrins or amphiphilic compounds as well as the characterization of drug affinities to several vehicle systems, such as micelles, microemulsions and liposomes. Due to the widespread use of capillary electrophoresis in drug analysis, the technical equipment is quite common. ACE is advantageous as a rapid and simple screening method which provides quantitative results about various interactions with a minimum of substance consumption and time spent.