Electrochemical reduction of ciprofloxacin at the mercury electrode and its voltammetric determination in tablet and urine

In this study a reduction square wave voltammetric method was developed and validated for the direct determination of ciprofloxacin (CIP) in pharmaceutical formulation and biological fluid using hanging mercury dropping electrode (HMDE) surface. Best results were obtained for the quantitative determination of CIP in 0.02 M Britton-Robinson buffer at pH 2.5 and at a potential of ?1300 mV vs. Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Various experimental and instrumental parameters affecting the peak current and potential of CIP electrochemical reduction were investigated and optimized. The monitored peak current was directly proportional to the concentration of CIP, where it exhibited a linear response in the range 3.0 × 10^?7–2 × 10^?6 M (r = 0.99). The accuracy of the proposed method was concluded based on the value of mean recovery of 98 ± 0.72 % with RSD of 0.181 % at a detection limit of 7 × 10^?9 M. Possible interferences by various substances usually present in pharmaceutical formulations have been also evaluated. After validating the proposed method, the applicability of this voltammetric method was demonstrated by estimating CIP in its pharmaceutical formulation and spiked human urine, where values of mean recoveries of 97 ± 1.0% and 108.0 ± 2.0% were obtained, respectively.     

A phase I, randomized study of combined IL-2 and therapeutic immunisation with antiretroviral therapy

Background  

Fully functional HIV-1-specific CD8 and CD4 effector T-cell responses are vital to the containment of viral activity and disease progression. These responses are lacking in HIV-1-infected patients with progressive disease. We attempted to augment fully functional HIV-1-specific CD8 and CD4 effector T-cell responses in patients with advanced chronic HIV-1 infection.     

Influence of inclusion complexation with β-cyclodextrin on the photostability of selected imidazoline-derived drugs

In this paper, the influence of inclusion complexation with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) on the photostability of antazoline, xylometazoline, and naphazoline in aqueous media was investigated. The photodegradation reaction of these drugs molecules was explored using UV–vis spectrophotometery-based kinetic analysis and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Quantitative evaluation of the influence of β-CD was judged based on the observed rate constant (k _obs), half-life time (t _0.5) and t _0.1 of the photodegradation reaction and the peak area of the corresponding analyte after photodegradation using HPLC separation. It has been demonstrated that the photostability of these selected imidazoline-based drugs has been enhanced upon forming inclusion complexes with β-CD in aqueous media. Moreover, high consistency regarding the photostability enhancement was obtained using both techniques. Hypothetical structure for 1:1 inclusion complexes was proposed based on molecular mechanics calculations, which in turn provide an insight for the energetically preferential structure of the inclusion complexes. The results obtained demonstrate that β-CD can be utilized as photostabilizer additive for enhancing the photostability of imidazoline-derived drugs molecules.     

Integrated microfluidic device for the separation and electrochemical detection of catechol estrogen-derived DNA adducts

Catechol estrogen-derived DNA adducts are formed as a result of the reaction of catechol estrogen metabolites (e.g., catechol estrogen quinones) with DNA to form depurinating adducts. Developing a new methodology for the detection of various DNA adducts is essential for medical diagnostics, and to this end, we demonstrate the applicability of on-chip capillary electrophoresis with an integrated electrochemical system for the separation and amperometric detection of various catechol estrogen-derived DNA adducts. A hybrid PDMS/glass microchip with in-channel amperometric detection interfaced with in situ palladium decoupler is utilized and presented. The influence of buffer additives along with the effect of the separation voltage on the resolving power of the microchip is discussed. Calibration plots were constructed in the range 0.4–10 μM with r ² ≥ 0.999, and detection limits in the attomole range are reported. These results suggest that on-chip analysis is applicable for analyzing various DNA adducts as potential biomarkers for future medical diagnostics.     

Femtosecond vibrational dynamics of self-trapping in a quasi-one-dimensional system

We have directly time resolved the lattice motions associated with the formation of the self-trapped exciton in the quasi-one-dimensional system [Pt(en)(2)] [Pt(en)2Br2];(PF6)(4) ( en = ethylene-diamine, C2H8N2), using femtosecond impulsive excitation techniques. A strongly damped, low-frequency wave packet modulation at approximately 110 cm(-1) accompanies the formation of the self-trapped exciton on a approximately 200 fs time scale following excitation of the intervalence charge-transfer transition. Coherent oscillations at the ground state vibrational frequency and its harmonics are also detected.     

Spectral Asymptotics for Higher-Order Ordinary Differential Equations

This paper gives one-term componentwise asymptotics for theM and spectral matrices of a self-adjoint realisation of aneven-order ordinary differential expression. The underlyinginterval is assumed to have at least one regular endpoint, andthe boundary conditions are supposed to be separated. Furthermore,the weight function and the reciprocal of the highest-ordercoefficient are supposed to be of regular variation at the regularendpoint, in the sense of Bingham, Goldie and Teugels. 1991Mathematics Subject Classification: 34B24, 34E05.     

Computational Study on the Mechanism of the Photouncaging Reaction of Vemurafenib: Toward an Enhanced Photoprotection Approach for Photosensitive Drugs

The photochemical behavior of the photosensitive first-line anticancer drug vemurafenib (VFB) is of great interest due to the impact of such behavior on its pharmacological activity. In this work, we computationally elucidated the mechanism of the photoinduced release of VFB from the 4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzene (DMNB) photoprotecting group by employing various density functional theory (DFT)/time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) approaches. The computational investigations included a comparative assessment of the influence of the position of the photoprotecting group as a substituent on the thermodynamics and kinetics of the photouncaging reactions of two VFB-DMNB prodrugs, namely pyrrole (N_P) and sulfonamide (N_S). With the aid of the DFT calculations concerning the activation energy barrier (∆G^‡), the obtained results suggest that the step of the photoinduced intramolecular proton transfer of the DMNB moiety is not detrimental concerning the overall reaction profile of the photouncaging reaction of both prodrugs. However, the obtained results suggested that the position of the substitution position of the DMNB photoprotecting group within the prodrug structure has a substantial impact on the photouncaging reaction. In particular, the DMNB-N_s-VFB prodrug exhibited a notable increase in ∆G^‡ for the key step of ring opining within the DMNB moiety indicative of potentially hindered kinetics of the photouncaging process compared with DMNB-N_p-VFB. Such an increase in ∆G^‡ may be attributed to the electronic influence of the N_P fragment of the prodrug. The results reported herein elaborate on the mechanism of the photoinduced release of an important anticancer drug from photoprotecting groups with the aim of enhancing our understanding of the photochemical behavior of such photosensitive pharmaceutical materials at the molecular level.