Pathways of chemical degradation of polypeptide antibiotic bacitracin

We described the main pathways of bacitracin (Be) decomposition, chromatographically set the position of its major degradation products and evaluated microbiological activity of isolated components of Be and its degradation products. All processes of Be decomposition under stress and accelerated test conditions were monitored with HPLC, performed mainly on a new type reversed-phase (RP-18e) monolithic silica column (Chromolith (R)) enabling fast separation times and some of them also on conventional HPLC columns. Diode array detection, preparative HPLC and FAB mass spectrometry were used for identification of individual Be components. We found that the major decomposition mechanism in water solutions of Be is oxidation, and in alkaline solutions, deamidation. In oxidation process the components B1, B2 and B3 and A are oxidized into their corresponding oxidative products H1, H2, H3 and F respectively by the same mechanism. A detailed study of oxidative degradation products revealed that HPLC separation with an acid mobile phase caused splitting of peaks of components H2, H3 and F into two peaks but the peak of component H1 did not split due to its special structural properties. For the component A we confirmed gradual formation of desamido product through an intermediate. We found oxidative degradation products of Be to be relatively stable, and desamido degradation products to be rather unstable. The estimation of kinetics of Be decomposition was presented with a semi-quantitative model. Microbiological activity of individual isolated active components of Be was established and the negligible antimicrobial activity of the degradation products was confirmed.