A microfluidic system to study the cytotoxic effect of drugs: the combined effect of celecoxib and 5-fluorouracil on normal and cancer cells

We have investigated the response of normal and cancer cells to exposure a combination of celecoxib (Celbx) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) using a lab-on-a-chip microfluidic device. Specifically, we have tested the cytotoxic effect of Celbx on normal mouse embryo cells (Balb/c 3T3) and human lung carcinoma cells (A549). The single drugs or their combinations were adjusted to five different concentrations using a concentration gradient generator (CGG) in a single step. The results suggest that Celbx can enhanced the anticancer activity of 5-FU by stronger inhibition of cancer cell growth. We also show that the A549 cancer cells are more sensitive to Celbx than the Balb/c 3T3 normal cells. The results obtained with the microfluidic system were compared to those obtained with a macroscale in vitro cell culture method. In our opinion, the microfluidic system represents a unique approach for an evaluation of cellular response to multidrug exposure that also is more simple than respective microwell plate assays.

A new approach for quantitative analysis of l-phenylalanine using a novel semi-sandwich immunometric assay

Here, we describe a novel method for l-phenylalanine analysis using a sandwich-type immunometric assay approach for use as a new method for amino acid analysis. To overcome difficulties of the preparation of high-affinity and selectivity monoclonal antibodies against l-phenylalanine and the inability to use sandwich-type immunometric assays due to their small molecular weight, three procedures were examined. First, amino groups of l-phenylalanine were modified by “N-Fmoc-l-cysteine” (FC) residues and the derivative (FC-Phe) was used as a hapten. Immunization of mice with bovine serum albumin/FC-Phe conjugate successfully yielded specific monoclonal anti-FC-Phe antibodies. Second, a new derivatization reagent, “biotin linker conjugate of FC-Phe N-succinimidyl ester” (FC(Biotin)-NHS), was synthesized to convert l-phenylalanine to FC-(Biotin)-Phe as a hapten structure. The biotin moiety linked to the thiol group of cysteine formed a second binding site for streptavidin/horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugates for optical detection. Third, a new semi-sandwich-type immunometric assay was established using pre-derivatized l-phenylalanine, the monoclonal anti-FC-Phe antibody, and streptavidin/HRP conjugate (without second antibody). Using the new “semi-sandwich” immunometric assay system, a detection limit of 35 nM (60 amol per analysis) and a detection range of 0.1–20 μM were attained using a standard l-phenylalanine solution. Rat plasma samples were analyzed to test reliability. Intra-day assay precision was within 6 % of the coefficient of variation; inter-day variation was 0.1 %. The recovery rates were from 92.4 to 123.7 %. This is the first report of the quantitative determination of l-phenylalanine using a reliable semi-sandwich immunometric assay approach and will be applicable to the quantitative determination of other amino acids.     

A method for the determination of d-kynurenine in biological tissues

d-Kynurenine (d-KYN), a metabolite of d-tryptophan, can serve as the bioprecursor of kynurenic acid (KYNA) and 3-hydroxykynurenine, two neuroactive compounds that are believed to play a role in the pathophysiology of several neurological and psychiatric diseases. In order to investigate the possible presence of d-KYN in biological tissues, we developed a novel assay based on the conversion of d-KYN to KYNA by purified d-amino acid oxidase (d-AAO). Samples were incubated with d-AAO under optimal conditions for measuring d-AAO activity (100 mM borate buffer, pH 9.0), and newly produced KYNA was detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorimetric detection. The detection limit for d-KYN was 300 fmol, and linearity of the assay was ascertained up to 300 pmol. No assay interference was noted when other d-amino acids, including d-serine and d-aspartate, were present in the incubation mixture at 50-fold higher concentrations than d-KYN. Using this new method, d-KYN was readily detected in the brain, liver, and plasma of mice treated systemically with d-KYN (300 mg/kg). In these experiments, enantioselectivity was confirmed by determining total kynurenine levels in the same samples using a conventional HPLC assay. Availability of a sensitive, specific, and simple method for d-KYN measurement will be instrumental for evaluating whether d-KYN should be considered for a role in physiology and pathology.     

Non-oral drug preparations containing cyclodextrin complexes

The application of cyclodextrin complexed drugs in non-oral dosage forms results in the following advantages:

- The stability of volatile, chemically unstable drugs is significantly improved by transforming them into cyclodextrin complexes.

- The transformation of oils, liquids into crystalline, solid state provides better physical, mechanical properties, easy to handle products.

- Complex formation/encapsulation on molecular scale/remarkably enhances the dissolution and absorption of lipophylic drugs.

- The formation of water soluble inclusion complexes makes possible the preparation of parenteral dosage forms without using organic solvents or detergents.

     

Three–step method to determine the eutectic composition of binary and ternary mixtures

A three-step method to determine the eutectic composition of a binary or ternary mixture is introduced. The method consists in creating a temperature–composition diagram, validating the predicted eutectic composition via differential scanning calorimetry and subsequent T-History measurements. To test the three-step method, we use two novel eutectic phase change materials based on \(\mathrm{Zn}(\hbox {NO}_3)_2\cdot 6\mathrm{H}_{2}{\mathrm O}\) and \(\mathrm{NH}_4\mathrm{NO}_3\)   respectively \(\mathrm{Mn}(\hbox {NO}_3)_2\cdot 6\mathrm{H}_{2}{\hbox {O}}\) and \(\mathrm{NH}_4\mathrm{NO}_3\) with equilibrium liquidus temperatures of 12.4 and 3.9  \(\,^{\circ }\mathrm {C}\) respectively with corresponding melting enthalpies of 135 J \(\mathrm{g}^{-1}\) (237 J \(\mathrm{cm}^{-3}\) ) respectively 133 J \(\mathrm{g}^{-1}\) (225 J \(\mathrm{cm}^{-3}\) ). We find eutectic compositions of 75/25 mass% for \(\mathrm{Zn}(\hbox {NO}_3)_2\cdot \mathrm{6H}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}\) and \(\mathrm{NH}_4\mathrm{NO}_3\) and 73/27 mass% for \(\mathrm{Mn}(\hbox {NO}_3)_2\cdot 6\mathrm{H}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}\) and \(\mathrm{NH}_4\mathrm{NO}_3\) . Considering a temperature range of 15 K around the phase change, a maximum storage capacity of about 172 J \(\mathrm{g}^{-1}\) (302 J \(\mathrm{cm}^{-3}\) ) respectively 162 J \(\mathrm{g}^{-1}\) (274 J \(\mathrm{cm}^{-3}\) ) was determined for \(\mathrm{Zn}(\hbox {NO}_3)_2\cdot \mathrm{6H}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}\) and \(\mathrm{NH}_4\mathrm{NO}_3\) respectively \(\mathrm{Mn}(\hbox {NO}_3)_2\cdot \mathrm{6H}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}\) and \(\mathrm{NH}_4\mathrm{NO}_3\) .     

Heats of formation of the amino acids re-examined by means of W1-F12 and W2-F12 theories

We have obtained accurate heats of formation for the twenty natural amino acids by means of explicitly correlated high-level thermochemical procedures. Our best theoretical heats of formation, obtained by means of the ab initio W1-F12 and W2-F12 thermochemical protocols, differ significantly (RMSD = 2.3 kcal/mol, maximum deviation 4.6 kcal/mol) from recently reported values using the lower-cost G3(MP2) method. With the more recent G4(MP2) procedure, RMSD drops slightly to 1.8 kcal/mol, while full G4 theory offers a more significant improvement to 0.72 kcal/mol (max. dev. 1.4 kcal/mol for glutamine). The economical G4(MP2)-6X protocol performs equivalently at RMSD = 0.71 kcal/mol (max. dev. 1.6 kcal/mol for arginine and glutamine). Our calculations are in excellent agreement with experiment for glycine, alanine and are in excellent agreement with the recent revised value for methionine, but suggest revisions by several kcal/mol for valine, proline, phenylalanine, and cysteine, in the latter case confirming a recent proposed revision. Our best heats of formation at 298 K ( $\Delta H_{f,298}^{\circ }$ ) are as follows: at the W2-F12 level: glycine ?94.1, alanine $-$ 101.5, serine $-$ 139.2, cysteine $-$ 94.5, and methionine $-$ 102.4  kcal/mol, and at the W1-F12 level: arginine $-$ 98.8, asparagine $-$ 146.5, aspartic acid $-$ 189.6, glutamine $-$ 151.0, glutamic acid $-$ 195.5, histidine $-$ 69.8, isoleucine $-$ 118.3, leucine $-$ 118.8, lysine $-$ 110.0, phenylalanine $-$ 76.9, proline $-$ 92.8, threonine $-$ 149.0, and valine $-$ 113.6 kcal/mol. For the two largest amino acids, an average over G4, G4(MP2)-6X, and CBS-QB3 yields best estimates of $-$ 58.4 kcal/mol for tryptophan, and of $-$ 117.5 kcal/mol for tyrosine. For glycine, we were able to obtain a “quasi-W4” result corresponding to $\hbox {TAE}_e$  = 968.1, $\hbox {TAE}_0$  = 918.6, $\Delta H_{f,298}^{\circ }=-90.0$ , and $\Delta H_{f,298}^{\circ }=-94.0$  kcal/mol.     

Limits of cyclodextrin application in oral drug preparations

Cyclodextrins are applied to facilitate formulation problems, to improve stability and bioavailability. Following factors are determining whether or not cyclodextrins can be applied in oral pharmaceutical preparations:

- properties of the selected CD: solubility, price, specific catalytic properties,

- the drug to be complexed: molecular weight, polarity, solubility,

- drug dose

- solubility properties of the complex and the “super solubility” /temporary over-saturation/

- complex stability and possibility to shift the dissociation equilibrium toward the appropriate direction

- legislative procedures

     

Anionic cellulose beads for drug encapsulation and release

Cellulose beads were prepared from water-based solvent and oxidised by modified Anelli’s reaction at 20– $80\,^\circ \hbox {C}$ for 2–48 h (Fig. 1). The maximum amount of anionic groups (AGs) was $1.85\,\hbox {mmol}\,\hbox {g}^{-1}$ . The distribution of AGs was verified by absorption of cationic dyes and imaging with confocal fluorescent microscopy. Structural changes were studied spectroscopically and with electron microscopy. Oxidation of the beads drastically increased the swelling capacity of air-dried beads. Uptake of model drug was more than doubled in never-dried beads. This is due to the changes in pore size distribution, mainly opening and widening of the closed pores and narrow cavities. Release profiles of the drug were studied at physiological pH of 7.4 and showed a controlled release rate independently of the amount of the drug encapsulated and amount of AGs.     

Compound-specific isotope analysis of benzotriazole and its derivatives

Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) is an important tool for the identification of contaminant sources and transformation pathways, but it is rarely applied to emerging aquatic micropollutants owing to a series of instrumental challenges. Using four different benzotriazole corrosion inhibitors and its derivatives as examples, we obtained evidence that formation of organometallic complexes of benzotriazoles with parts of the instrumentation impedes isotope analysis. Therefore, we propose two strategies for accurate $\delta^{13}$ C and $\delta^{15}$ N measurements of polar organic micropollutants by gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/IRMS). Our first approach avoids metallic components and uses a Ni/Pt reactor for benzotriazole combustion while the second is based on the coupling of online methylation to the established GC/IRMS setup. Method detection limits for on-column injection of benzotriazole, as well as its 1-CH $_{3}$ -, 4-CH $_{3}$ -, and 5-CH $_{3}$ -substituted species were 0.1–0.3 mM and 0.1–1.0 mM for δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N analysis respectively, corresponding to injected masses of 0.7–1.8 nmol C and 0.4–3.0 nmol N, respectively. The Ni/Pt reactor showed good precision and was very long-lived ( $>$ 1000 successful measurements). Coupling isotopic analysis to offline solid-phase extraction enabled benzotriazole-CSIA in tap water, wastewater treatment effluent, activated sludge, and in commercial dishwashing products. A comparison of $\delta ^{13}$ C and $\delta ^{15}$ N values from different benzotriazoles and benzotriazole derivatives, both from commercial standards and in dishwashing detergents, reveals the potential application of the proposed method for source apportionment.     

The principal measure and distributional (p, q)-chaos of a coupled lattice system with coupling constant \varepsilon =1 related with Belusov–Zhabotinskii reaction

We consider the following system coming from a lattice dynamical system stated by Kaneko (Phys Rev Lett, 65:1391–1394, 1990) which is related to the Belusov–Zhabotinskii reaction: $$\begin{aligned} x_{n}^{m+1}=(1-\varepsilon )f\left( x_{n}^{m}\right) +\frac{1}{2}\varepsilon \left[ f(x_{n-1}^{m})+f\left( x_{n+1}^{m}\right) \right] , \end{aligned}$$ where $m$ is discrete time index, $n$ is lattice side index with system size $L$ (i.e., $n=1, 2, \ldots , L$ ), $\varepsilon \ge 0$ is coupling constant, and $f(x)$ is the unimodal map on $I$ (i.e., $f(0)=f(1)=0$ , and $f$ has unique critical point $c$ with $0<c<1$ and $f(c)=1$ ). In this paper, we prove that for coupling constant $\varepsilon =1$ , this CML (Coupled Map Lattice) system is distributionally $(p, q)$ -chaotic for any $p, q\in [0, 1]$ with $p\le q$ , and that its principal measure is not less than $\mu _{p}(f)$ . Consequently, the principal measure of this system is not less than $\frac{2}{3}+\sum _{n=2}^{\infty }\frac{1}{n}\frac{2^{n-1}}{(2^{n}+1) (2^{n-1}+1)}$ for coupling constant $\varepsilon =1$ and the tent map $\Lambda $ defined by $\Lambda (x)=1-|1-2x|, x\in [0, 1]$ . So, our results complement the results of Wu and Zhu (J Math Chem, 50:2439–2445, 2012).     

Optimal descriptors as a tool to predict the thermal decomposition of polymers

Quantitative structure-property relationship for the thermal decomposition of polymers is suggested. The data on architecture of monomers is used to represent polymers. The structures of monomers are represented by simplified molecular input-line entry system. The average statistical quality of the suggested quantitative structure-property relationships for prediction of molar thermal decomposition function $\hbox {Y}_{\mathrm{d},1/2}$ is the following: $\hbox {r}^{2}=0.970 \pm 0.01$ and $\hbox {RMSE}=4.71\pm 1.01\,(\hbox {K}\times \hbox {kg}\times \hbox {mol}^{-1})$ .     

Computer-aided cooling curve thermal analysis of near eutectic Al–Si–Cu–Fe alloy

The effects of bismuth (Bi), antimony (Sb) and strontium (Sr) additions on the characteristic parameters of the evolution of aluminium dendrites in a near eutectic Al–11.3Si–2Cu–0.4Fe alloy during solidification at different cooling rates (0.6–2 °C) were investigated by computer-aided cooling curve thermal analysis (CA-CCTA). Nucleation temperature ( $ T_{\text{N}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} $ ) is defined with a new approach based on second derivative cooling curve. The results showed that $ T_{\text{N}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} $ increased with increasing cooling rate but both the growth temperature ( $ T_{\text{G}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} $ ) and the coherency temperature (T _DCP) decreased. Increase in the temperature difference for dendrite coherency ( $ T_{\text{N}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} - T_{\text{DCP}} $ ) with increasing cooling rate indicate a wider range of temperature before the dendrite can impinge on each other and higher fraction solid ( $ f_{\text{S}}^{\text{DCP}} $ ). Additions of Bi, Sb and Sr to the base alloy produced only a minor effect on $ T_{\text{N}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} $ . Additions of Bi and Sb resulted in an increase in fraction solid and an increase of 30 % in the value of $ T_{\text{N}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} \, - \,T_{\text{G}}^{{\alpha {\text{ - Al}}}} $ to almost 13 °C.     

Susceptibility to hydrolysis of phenylboronic pinacol esters at physiological pH

Boronic acids and their esters are highly considered compounds for the design of new drugs and drug delivery devices, particularly as boron-carriers suitable for neutron capture therapy. However, these compounds are only marginally stable in water. Hydrolysis of some phenylboronic pinacol esters is described here. The kinetics is dependent on the substituents in the aromatic ring. Also the pH strongly influences the rate of the reaction, which is considerably accelerated at physiological pH. Therefore, care must be taken when considering these boronic pinacol esters for pharmacological purposes.      

l-Asparaginase as Potent Anti-leukemic Agent and Its Significance of Having Reduced Glutaminase Side Activity for Better treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is one of the leading types of malignant disorder seen in children. Viral infections, genetic factors and exposure to chemical carcinogens are some of the factors responsible for causing ALL. Treatment strategies followed for curing ALL include chemotherapy or radiation therapy, wherein, chemotherapy involves the use of the enzymatic drug l-Asparaginase. The enzyme can be produced from various plants, animals, bacterial and fungal sources but, among them, bacterial sources are widely used for production of this enzyme. The enzyme is non-human in origin having certain bottle necks with l-Asparaginase therapy in the form of side effects such as pancreatitis, thrombosis which are mainly due to glutaminase side activity. Hence, present-day research is mainly focussed on minimizing or completely eliminating the glutaminase activity of the enzyme l-Asparaginase. This review is focussed on the complications associated with glutaminase side activity and use of glutaminase free enzymatic drug l-Asparaginase in treating ALL and the other developments related to the modification of the drug for quality treatment.     

Activity and Synergistic Antimicrobial Activity Between Diketopiperazines Against Bacteria In Vitro

The aim of the present study was to determine the synergistic effects of diketopiperazines [cyclo-(l-Pro-l-Leu) (1), cyclo-(d-Pro-l-Leu) (2), and cyclo-(d-Pro-l-Tyr) (3)] purified from a Bacillus sp. N strain associated with entomopathogenic nematode Rhabditis (Oscheius) sp. on the growth of bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of the diketopiperazines was compared with that of the standard antibiotics. The synergistic antibacterial activities of the combination of diketopiperazines against pathogenic bacteria were assessed using the checkerboard assay and time?Ckill methods. The results of the present study showed that the combination effects of diketopiperazines were predominately synergistic (FIC index <0.5). Furthermore, time?Ckill study showed that the growth of the tested bacteria was completely attenuated with 4?C12?h of treatment with 50:50 ratios of diketopiperazines. These results suggest that the combination of diketopiperazines may be microbiologically beneficial. The three diketopiperazines are nontoxic to normal human cell line (L231 lung epithelial) up to 200?m???g/ml. The in vitro synergistic activity of cyclo-(l-Pro-l-Leu), cyclo-(d-Pro-l-Leu), and cyclo-(d-Pro-l-Tyr) against bacteria is reported here for the first time. These findings have potential implications in delaying the development of resistance as the antibacterial effect is achieved with lower concentrations of both drugs (diketopiperazines).     

Targeted Multiplex Imaging Mass Spectrometry in Transmission Geometry for Subcellular Spatial Resolution

Targeted multiplex imaging mass spectrometry utilizes several different antigen-specific primary antibodies, each directly labeled with a unique photocleavable mass tag, to detect multiple antigens in a single tissue section. Each photocleavable mass tag bound to an antibody has a unique molecular weight and can be readily ionized by laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. This article describes a mass spectrometry method that allows imaging of targeted single cells within tissue using transmission geometry laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. Transmission geometry focuses the laser beam on the back side of the tissue placed on a glass slide, providing a 2 μm diameter laser spot irradiating the biological specimen. This matrix-free method enables simultaneous localization at the sub-cellular level of multiple antigens using specific tagged antibodies. We have used this technology to visualize the co-expression of synaptophysin and two major hormones peptides, insulin and somatostatin, in duplex assays in beta and delta cells contained in a human pancreatic islet.      

An eigenfunction expansion of the non-selfadjoint Sturm–Liouville operator with a singular potential

In this paper, we consider the operator $L$ L generated in $L^{2}\left( \mathbb{R }_{+}\right) $ L 2 R + by the differential expression $$\begin{aligned} l\left( y\right) =-y^{\prime \prime }+\left[ \frac{\nu ^{2}-\frac{1}{4}}{x^{2}}+q\left( x\right) \right] y,\,\,x\in \mathbb{R }_{+}:=\left( 0,\infty \right) \end{aligned}$$ l y = - y ' ' + ν 2 - 1 4 x 2 + q x y , x ∈ R + : = 0 , ∞ and the boundary condition $$\begin{aligned} \underset{x\rightarrow 0}{\lim }x^{-\nu -\frac{1}{2}}y\left( x\right) =1, \end{aligned}$$ lim x → 0 x - ν - 1 2 y x = 1 , where $q$ q is a complex valued function and $\nu $ ν is a complex number with $Re\nu >0$ R e ν > 0 . We have proved a spectral expansion of L in terms of the principal functions under the condition $$\begin{aligned} \underset{x\in \mathbb{R }_{+}}{Sup}\left\{ e^{\epsilon \sqrt{x}}\left| q(x)\right| \right\} <\infty , \epsilon >0 \end{aligned}$$ S u p x ∈ R + e ? x q ( x ) < ∞ , ? > 0 taking into account the spectral singularities. We have also investigated the convergence of the spectral expansion.     

Symmetry-itemized enumeration of RS-stereoisomers of allenes. I. The fixed-point matrix method of the USCI approach combined with the stereoisogram approach

After the RS-stereoisomeric group \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\) of order 16 has been defined by starting point group \(\mathbf{D}_{2d}\) of order 8, the isomorphism between \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\) and the point group \(\mathbf{D}_{4h}\) of order 16 is thoroughly discussed. The non-redundant set of subgroups (SSG) of \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\) is obtained by referring to the non-redundant set of subgroups of \(\mathbf{D}_{4h}\) . The coset representation for characterizing the orbit of the four positions of an allene skeleton is clarified to be \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}(/\mathbf{C}_{s\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}})\) , which is closely related to the \(\mathbf{D}_{4h}(/\mathbf{C}_{2v}^{\prime \prime \prime })\) . According to the unit-subduced-cycle-index (USCI) approach (Fujita, Symmetry and combinatorial enumeration of chemistry. Springer, Berlin 1991), the subduction of \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}(/\mathbf{C}_{s\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}})\) is examined so as to generate unit subduced cycle indices with chirality fittingness (USCI-CFs). Then, the fixed-point matrix method of the USCI approach is applied to the USCI-CFs. Thereby, the numbers of quadruplets are calculated in an itemized fashion with respect to the subgroups of \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\) . After the subgroups of \(\mathbf{D}_{2d\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\) are categorized into types I–V, type-itemized enumeration of quadruplets is conducted to illustrate the versatility of the stereoisogram approach.     

Higher order structure characterization of protein therapeutics by hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry

Characterization of therapeutic drugs is a crucial step in drug development in the biopharmaceutical industry. Analysis of protein therapeutics is a challenging task because of the complexities associated with large molecular size and 3D structures. Recent advances in hydrogen/deuterium-exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) have provided a means to assess higher-order structure of protein therapeutics in solution. In this review, the principles and procedures of HDX-MS for protein therapeutics characterization are presented, focusing on specific applications of epitope mapping for protein–protein interactions and higher-order structure comparison studies for conformational dynamics of protein therapeutics. Figure

HDX of protein backbone amide hydrogen