Effective separation and simultaneous analysis of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) in their pharmaceutical formulations by a validated TLC-densitometry method

ABSTRACT: A TLC densitometric method was developed for simultaneous determination of four anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) of testosterone derivatives including testosterone propionate (TP), testosterone phenyl propionate (TPP), testosterone isocaproate (TI) and testosterone deaconate (TD) in their pharmaceutical products. Separation was carried out on Al based TLC plates, pre-coated with silica gel 60F-254 using hexane and ethyl acetate (8.5:1.5, v/v). Spots at Rf 0.31+/-0.01, 0.34+/-0.01, 0.40+/-0.01 and 0.45+/-0.02 were recognized as TPP, TP, TI and TD, respectively. Quantitative analysis was done by densitometric measurements at lambdamax 251 nm for all derivatives. The developed method was validated as per ICH guidelines. Method was found linear over the concentration range of 200-1200 ng/spot with the correlation coefficient of 0.995, 0.993, 0.995 and 0.996 for TP, TPP, TI, TD, respectively. Limit of detection for all derivatives were in the range of 16.7-22.3 ng/spot while limit of quantitation were found to be in the range of 55.7-70.9 ng/spot. The developed TLC method can be applied for the simultaneous routine analysis of testosterone derivatives in their individual and combined pharmaceutical formulations.     

Microbial Transformation of Isolongifolen‐4‐one

The microbial transformation of (+)‐isolongifolen‐4‐one ( 4 ) by a number of fungi by means of a standard two‐stage fermentation technique afforded (7R)‐12‐hydroxyisolongifolen‐4‐one ( 5 ), (7S)‐13‐hydroxyisolongifolen‐4‐one ( 6 ), (11R)‐11‐hydroxyisolongifolen‐4‐one ( 7 ), (10R)‐10‐hydroxyisolongifolen‐4‐one ( 8 ), and (9R)‐9‐hydroxyisolongifolen‐4‐one ( 9 ) (Scheme). All five metabolites were found to be new, and metabolites 6 and 9 showed potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity (Table 1). The metabolites and their derivatives were characterized on the basis of spectroscopic and single‐crystal X‐ray‐diffraction techniques.     

Microbial transformation of (+)-androsta-1 ,4-diene-3,17-dione by Cephalosporium aphidicola

Fermentation of (+)-androsta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione ([structure: see text]) with Cephalosporium aphidicola for 8 days yielded oxidative and reductive metabolites, androst-4-ene-3,17-dione ([structure: see text]), 17beta-hydroxyandrosta-1,4-diene-3-one ([structure: see text]), 11alpha-hydroxyandrosta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione ([structure: see text]), 11alpha-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione ([structure: see text]), 11alpha,17beta-dihydroxyandrost-4-ene-3-one ([structure: see text]) and 11alpha,17beta-dihydroxyandrosta-1,4-diene-3-one ([structure: see text]). The fermentation of [structure: see text] with Fusarium lini also yielded metabolites [structure: see text]. The structures of these metabolites were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic techniques.     

Probing of Metabolites in Finely Powdered Plant Material by Direct Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Natural products continue to serve as an important source of novel drugs since the beginning of human history. High-throughput techniques, such as MALDI-MS, can be techniques of choice for the rapid screening of natural products in plant materials. We present here a fast and reproducible matrix-free approach for the direct detection of UV active metabolites in plant materials without any prior sample preparation. The plant material is mechanically ground to a fine powder and then sieved through different mesh sizes. The collected plant material is dispersed using 1 μL solvent on a target plate is directly exposed to Nd:YAG 335 nm laser. The strategy was optimized for the analysis of plant metabolites after study of the different factors affecting the reproducibility and effectiveness of the analysis, including particle sizes effects, types of solvents used to disperse the sample, and the part of the plant analyzed. Moreover, several plant species, known for different classes of metabolites, were screened to establish the generality of the approach. The developed approach was validated by the characterization of withaferin A and nicotine in the leaves of Withania somnifera and Nicotiana tabacum, respectively, through comparison of its MS/MS data with the standard compound. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques were used for the tissue imaging purposes. This approach can be used to directly probe small molecules in plant materials as well as in herbal and pharmaceutical formulations for fingerprinting development.      

Profiling of hydroxyurea-treated β-thalassemia/ serum proteome through nano-LC–ESI–MS/ MS in combination with microsol-isoelectric focusing

Advancements in proteomic tools offer a comprehensive solution to studying the complexity of diseases at molecular level. This study focusses on the clinical proteomic profiling of pre- and post-hydroxyurea (HU)-treated β-thalassemia patients in parallel with healthy individuals to better understand the role of HU in the treatment of β-thalassemia. The strategy encompasses sequential high-resolution protein fractionation using MicroSol-isoelectric focusing (ZOOM- IEF) followed by one-dimensional SDS-PAGE before nano-RP-LC–MS/ MS analysis of tryptic peptides. Protein identification was performed through Mascot search using NCBInr and SwissProt databases. Several different proteins were observed in pool serum samples of each of the three study groups. Approximately, 1250 proteins exclusive to each group were identified, and after removing the redundant and low sequence coverage proteins, the number was reduced to 576 (201 in healthy, 187 in HU-untreated and 188 in HU-treated group). Uniquely identified proteins in the HU-treated group regulate the focal adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction, PI3K-Akt signaling, Rap1 signaling, cAMP signaling, platelet activation, and Ca²⁺ signaling pathways in the HU-treated group. The proteomic profile presented here will add to the current state of understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in hydroxyurea treatment of β-thalassemia.     

Validated TLC-densitometry method for the simultaneous analysis of pyrethroid insecticides in agricultural and domestic products

Background

For therapeutic monitoring and pharmacokinetic studies of lenalidomide (LND), the potent drug for treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), a specific antibody was required for the development of a sensitive immunoassay system for the accurate determination of LND in plasma.

Results

In this study, a hapten of LND (N-glutaryl-LND) was synthesized by introducing the glutaryl moiety, as a spacer, into the primary aromatic amine site of the LND molecular structure. The structure of the hapten (G-LND) was confirmed by mass, ¹H-NMR, and ¹³C spectrometric techniques. G-LND was coupled to each of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) proteins by ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide as a coupling reagent. LND-KLH conjugate was used as an immunogen. Four female 2-3 months old New Zealand white rabbits were immunized with an emulsion of LND-KLH with Freund`s adjuvant. The immune response of the rabbits was monitored by direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using LND-BSA immobilized onto microwell plates as a solid phase. The rabbit that showed the highest antibody titer and affinity to LND was scarified and its sera were collected. The IgG fraction was isolated and purified by affinity chromatography on protein A column. The specificity of the purified antibody for LND was evaluated by indirect competitive ELISA using dexamethasone as a competitor as it is used with LND in a combination therapy.

Conclusions

The high affinity of the antibody (IC₅₀ = 10 ng/mL) will be useful in the development of an immunoassay system for the determination of plasma LND concentrations. Current research is going to optimize the assay conditions and validate the procedures for the routine application in clinical laboratories.     

Versatile nanocomposites in phosphoproteomics: A review

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications. Phosphorylated peptides are present in low abundance in blood serum but play a vital role in regulatory mechanisms and may serve as casual factors in diseases. The enrichment and analysis of phosphorylated peptides directly from human serum and mapping the phosphorylation sites is a challenging task. Versatile nanocomposites of different materials have been synthesized using simple but efficient methodologies for their enrichment. The nanocomposites include magnetic, coated, embedded as well as chemically derivatized materials. Different base materials such as polymers, carbon based and metal oxides are used. The comparison of nanocomposites with respective nanoparticles provides sufficient facts about their efficiency in terms of loading capacity and capture efficiency. The cost for preparing them is low and they hold great promise to be used as chromatographic materials for phosphopeptide enrichment. This review gives an overview of different nanocomposites in phosphoproteomics, discussing the improved efficiency than the individual counterparts and highlighting their significance in phosphopeptide enrichment.