TY - JOUR A1 - Simoes, R. A1 - Bernades, C. A1 - Joseph, A. A1 - Piedade, F. A1 - Kraus, Werner A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Diogo, H. A1 - da Piedade, M. T1 - Polymorphism in simvastatin: Twinning, disorder, and enantiotropic phase transitions JF - Molecular pharmaceutics N2 - : Simvastatin is one of the most widely used active pharmaceutical ingredients for the treatment of hyperlipidemias. Because the compound is employed as a solid in drug formulations, particular attention should be given to the characterization of different polymorphs, their stability domains, and the nature of the phase transitions that relate them. In this work, the phase transitions delimiting the stability domains of three previously reported simvastatin forms were investigated from structural, energetics, and dynamical points of view based on single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), hot stage microscopy (HSM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments (conventional scans and heat capacity measurements), complemented with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Previous assignments of the crystal forms were confirmed by SCXRD: forms I and II were found to be orthorhombic (P212121, Z′/Z = 1/4) and form III was monoclinic (P21, Z′/Z = 2/4). The obtained results further indicated that (i) the transitions between different forms are observed at 235.9 ± 0.1 K (form III → form II) and at 275.2 ± 0.2 K (form II → form I) in DSC runs carried out at 10 K min−1 and close to these values when other types of techniques are used (e.g., HSM). (ii) They are enantiotropic (i.e., there is a transition temperature relating the two phases before fusion at which the stability order is reversed), fast, reversible, with very little hysteresis between heating and cooling modes, and occur under single crystal to single crystal conditions. (iii) A nucleation and growth mechanism seems to be followed since HSM experiments on single crystals evidenced the propagation of an interface, accompanied by a change of birefringence and crystal contraction or expansion (more subtle in the case of form III → form II), when the phase transitions are triggered. (iv) Consistent with the reversible and small hysteresis nature of the phase transitions, the SCXRD results indicated that the molecular packing is very similar in all forms and the main structural differences are associated with conformational changes of the “ester tail”. (v) The MD simulations further suggested that the tail is essentially “frozen” in two conformations below the III → II transition temperature, becomes progressively less hindered throughout the stability domain of form II, and acquires a large conformational freedom above the II → I transition. Finally, the fact that these transitions were found to be fast and reversible suggests that polymorphism is unlikely to be a problem for pharmaceutical formulations employing crystalline simvastatin because, if present, the III and II forms will readily convert to form I at ambient temperature. KW - Polymorphism KW - Twinning KW - Disorder KW - Simvastatine PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00818 SN - 1543-8384 SN - 1543-8392 VL - 15 IS - 11 SP - 5349 EP - 5360 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-46927 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Joseph, A. A1 - Bernardes, C. E. S. A1 - Druzhinina, A. I. A1 - Varushchenko, R. M. A1 - Nguyen, Thi Yen A1 - Emmerling, Franziska A1 - Yuan, L. A1 - Dupray, V. A1 - Coquerel, G. A1 - Minas da Piedade, M. E. T1 - Polymorphic phase transition in 4′-hydroxyacetophenone: Equilibrium temperature, kinetic barrier, and the relative stability of Z′=1 and Z′=2 forms JF - Crystal Growth & Design N2 - Particularly relevant in the context of polymorphism is understanding how structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic factors dictate the stability domains of polymorphs, their tendency to interconvert through phase transitions, or their possibility to exist in metastable states. These three aspects were investigated here for two 4′-hydroxyacetophenone (HAP) polymorphs, differing in crystal system, space group, and number and conformation of molecules in the asymmetric unit. The results led to a ΔfGm°-T phase diagram highlighting the enantiotropic nature of the system and the fact that the Z′=1 polymorph is not necessarily more stable than its Z′=2 counterpart. It was also shown that the form II → form I transition is entropy driven and is likely to occur through a nucleation and growth mechanism, which does not involve intermediate phases, and is characterized by a high activation energy. Finally, although it has been noted that conflicts between hydrogen bond formation and close packing are usually behind exceptions from the hypothesis of Z′=1 forms being more stable than their higher Z′ analogues, in this case, the HAP polymorph with stronger hydrogen bonds (Z′=2) is also the one with higher density. KW - Polymorphism KW - Polymorphic transition KW - 4'-hydroxyacetophenone PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.6b01876 SN - 1528-7483 SN - 1528-7505 VL - 17 IS - 4 SP - 1918 EP - 1932 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-40167 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -