Detection of anti-tetanus toxoid antibody on modified polyacrylonitrile fibers

Accurate determination of concentration of immunoglobulin (IgG) to tetanus toxoid is important in order to evaluate the immunogenicity of tetanus toxoid vaccines, immune competence in individual patients and to measure the prevalence of immunity in populations. Surface modified polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers were evaluated as a matrix to develop highly sensitive method for the detection of anti-tetanus antibody in a sandwich ELISA format. In the proposed method tetanus toxoid immobilized on modified PAN fibers was used to detect anti-tetanus antibody (raised in horse hence represented as horse anti-tetanus toxoid or HAT-Ab) with horse raddish peroxidase enzyme conjugated with Rabbit anti-Horse IgG (RAH-HRP) as the label within 2.5 h. A sigmoidal pattern for the detection of different concentration of antibody ranging from 1.0 to 0.0001 IU mL⁻¹ was validated. The immunoassay recorded a very high sensitivity as concentration as low as 0.0005 IU mL⁻¹ of HAT-Ab was detected. The intra- and inter-assay precision for 3 parallel measurements of 0.01 and for 0.001 IU mL⁻¹ of antibody varied from 5.4% to 11% and 5.7% to 20% respectively. PAN fibers were also used to qualitatively access the presence of different level of anti-tetanus antibody spiked in human blood. Seroepidemiological studies to measure the immunity against tetanus were conducted with twenty-five human beings belonging to various age groups using modified PAN-ELISA. The sensitivity, specificity and the reproducibility of the developed immunoassay indicate the potential application of modified PAN fibers in the field of immunodiagnostics.     

Kinetics and mechanism of the ligand substitution reaction between aquapentacyanoruthenate(II) and 4-cyanopyridine in the presence of anionic surfactant micelles

The kinetics of ligand substitution between aquapentacyanoruthenate(II) ion, [Ru(CN)₅H₂O]³⁻ and 4-cyanopyridine (4-CNpy) has been investigated spectrophotometrically in the presence of anionic surfactant micelle, namely sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS) at 400 nm (λ_max of the intense yellow product [Ru(CN)₅4-CNpy]³⁻) under pseudo-first-order conditions using at least 10% excess of 4-CNpy over [Ru(CN)₅H₂O]³⁻. The reaction was studied as a function of [Ru(CN)₅H₂O³⁻], [4-CNpy], [SDS], pH, ionic strength and temperature, by varying each of these variables one at a time. The reaction exhibited overall second-order kinetics, being first order each in [4-CNpy] and [Ru(CN)₅H₂O³⁻] over a wide concentration range. Variation of ionic strength of the medium had a significant negative effect on the rate. The SDS micelle, being negatively charged, does not reveal any regular effect except at or near its critical micelle concentration (c.m.c). The rate of reaction was measured at different temperatures, and the activation parameters were computed using Arrhenius and Eyring plots. A plausible mechanism consistent with the experimental results has been proposed.     

Development and Validation of a High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography—Densitometry Method for the Quantitative Estimation of Morphine in the Classical Ayurvedic Formulation Kamini Vidrawan Ras

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Kamini Vidrawan Ras is a classical Ayurvedic medicine, referred to in Bhaisjya Ratnavali, a book recognized by the Drugs and...     

Mechanism design for a multicommodity flow game in service network alliances

We study a collaborative multicommodity flow game where individual players own capacity on the edges of the network and share this capacity to deliver commodities. We present membership mechanisms, by adopting a rationality based approach using notions from game theory and inverse optimization, to allocate benefits among the players in such a game.     

Numerical Modeling of Thin Film Deposition in Expanding Thermal Plasma

Expanding thermal plasma (ETP) is a widely used technique for deposition of a thin layer of ceramic materials and metal oxide on a substrate for a wide range of applications including abrasion resistance, UV absorption, as well as conductive and optical coatings. The coating quality is found to be dependent on operating parameters as well as reactor designs. In this article, we have presented a CFD based model of the ETP process to simulate the deposition of silica-like coatings on a polycarbonate substrate. Along with the flow-thermal model of plasma jet expansion process, the study also reports the development of a simplified gas phase and surface reaction model to simulate the coating phenomena. The model has been used further to study the effect of various operating conditions on the coating thickness, viz. reactor pressure, reagent flow rate, distance of the substrate from the arc and substrate alignment.     

LC–MS Based Workflows for Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis for Homeopathic Preparation of Hydrastis canadensis

Hydrastis canadensis L. is one of the important herbal medicinal plants, which is used for homeopathic preparations. It contains berberine, hydrastine as major and canadine, hydrastinine, berberastine and canadaline as minor bioactive compounds. The aim was to develop (I) a sensitive mass spectrometric-based quantitative/qualitative method for berberine in homeopathic dilutions of H. canadensis, (II) with identification of berberine and its structurally related compound present in the homeopathic preparation of H. canadensis using predictive MRM workflow, (III) confirmatory analysis for the structurally related compound in homeopathic dilutions of H. canadensis using high-resolution mass spectrometer. Different mass spectrometric-based workflows (MRM to EPI; pMRM to EPI and IDA-DBS) were used to develop the method to analyze the homeopathic dilutions of H. canadensis. A high-throughput liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method using MRM to EPI workflow was developed to analyze berberine in homeopathic preparation of H. canadensis. Multiple reaction monitoring transitions of 336.0/292.08 and 336.0/277.9 were selected for developing the quantitation method of berberine. The method was linear from 5.0 to 2000.0 pg/mL. The validated method has been successfully applied for the analysis of different potencies of homeopathic preparation of H. canadensis. Predictive MRM to enhanced product ion workflows was used to identify and confirm the structurally related molecules of berberine. Non targeted information dependent acquisition-DBS method was developed to identify the compounds in H. canadensis mother tincture using high-resolution mass spectrometry. The established method using different mass spectrometric workflows facilitates the convenient and fast quality control analysis for the herbal preparation of H. canadensis.     

Hydrolytic degradation of poly(ε‐caprolactone) with different end groups and poly(ε‐caprolactone‐co‐γ‐butyrolactone): characterization and kinetics of hydrocortisone delivery

Asymmetric telechelic α‐hydroxyl‐ω‐(carboxylic acid)‐poly(ε‐caprolactone) (HA‐PCL), α‐hydroxyl‐ω‐(benzylic ester)‐poly(ε‐caprolactone) (HBz‐PCL), and an asymmetric telechelic copolymer α‐hydroxyl‐ω‐(carboxylic acid)‐poly(ε‐caprolactone‐co‐γ‐butyrolactone) (HA‐PCB) were synthesized by ring‐opening polymerization of ε‐caprolactone (CL). CL and CL/γ‐butyrolactone mixture were used to obtain homopolymers and copolymer respectively at 150°C and 2 hr using ammonium decamolybdate (NH₄) [Mo₁₀O₃₄] (Dec) as a catalyst. Water (HA‐PCL and HA‐PCB) or benzyl alcohol (HBz‐PCL) were used as initiators. The three polylactones reached initial molecular weights between 2000 and 3000 Da measured by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H‐NMR). Compression‐molded polylactone caplets were allowed to degrade in 0.5 M aqueous p‐toluenesulfonic acid at 37°C and monitored up to 60 days for weight loss behavior. Data showed that the copolymer degraded faster than the PCL homopolymers, and that there was no difference in the weight loss behavior between HA‐PCL and HBz‐PCL. Caplets of the three polylactones containing 1% (w/w) hydrocortisone were placed in two different buffer systems, pH 5.0 with citrate buffer and pH 7.4 with phosphate buffer at 37°C, and monitored up to 50 days for their release behavior. The release profiles of hydrocortisone presented two stages. The introduction of a second monomer in the polymer chain significantly increased the release rate, the degradation rate for HA‐PCB being faster than those for HBz‐PCL and HA‐PCL. At the pH studied, only slight differences on the liberation profiles were observed. SEM micrographs indicate that hydrolytic degradation occurred mainly by a surface erosion mechanism. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of GaN phase by ion implantation

GaN phase is synthesized using systemic implantation of nitrogen ions of multiple energies (290, 130 and 50 keV) into Zn-doped GaAs (1 0 0) at room temperature and subsequent annealing at 850 °C for 30 min in Ar + H₂ atmosphere. The implanted doses of nitrogen ions are 5 × 10¹⁶ and 1 × 10¹⁷ ions-cm⁻². Glancing angle X-ray diffraction studies show that hexagonal phase of GaN were formed. The photoluminescence studies show the emission from the band edge as well as from point defects.     

Recent Advances in Chemistry of Condensed 4‐Thiazolidinones

The syntheses of condensed 4‐thiazolidinone and its various derivatives are reviewed for the first time. Condensed 4‐thiazolidinones are important scaffolds and versatile substrates in heterocyclic chemistry, as they can be used for the synthesis of a large variety of biologically active compounds such as thiazolotriazines and as raw material for the drug synthesis. The high reactivity of active methylene group next to the carbonyl of the thiazolidin ring represents useful targets for many organic reactions.     

Quantitative TLC Analysis of Sterol (24β-Ethylcholesta-5,22E,25-triene-3β-ol) in Agnimantha (Clerodendrum phlomidis Linn)

A quantitative method using silica gel 60F₂₅₄ high performance thin layer chromatography plates, automated bandwise sample application, and automated visible mode densitometric method has been developed for the determination of 24β-ethylcholesta-5,22E,25-triene-3β-ol (ECTO) in the aerial part of Clerodendrum phlomidis. ECTO was used as a chemical marker for the standardization of C. phlomidis plant extracts. The separation was performed on silica gel 60F₂₅₄ TLC plates using chloroform-methanol (98.5: 1.5, v/v) as mobile phase. The quantitation of ECTO was carried out using the densitometric reflection/absorption mode at 650 nm after post chromatographic derivatization with anisaldehyde reagent. A precise and accurate quantification can be performed in the linear working concentration range of 150–400 ng band⁻¹ with good correlation (r ² = 0.996). The method was validated for peak purities, precision, robustness, limit of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ), etc. as per ICH guidelines.