Screening of acetogenin-producing plants in Brazilian flora

The acetogenins are strongly bioactive natural compounds present in the bark, roots, leaves, and seeds of manyAnnonaceae plants. They are modified fatty acids and their cytotoxicities have been determined for different biological models including the in vitro growth inhibition of several human cancer cell lines. Very low acetogenin yield (< 0.1 g%) has been found previously in native phytobiomass, and we have now investigated the nonpredatory exploitation of the seeds as acetogenin sources characterizing the seed triacylglycerols (dominant fraction; > 90% of the whole lipid extracts) as potential valuable by-products.     

A quick UPLC–MS/MS method for therapeutic drug monitoring of abiraterone and delta(4)-abiraterone in human plasma

Abiraterone acetate efficacy against prostate cancer is dependent on the circulating levels of abiraterone and its active metabolites, which present significant pharmacokinetic variability among patients. Thus, therapeutic drug monitoring can be performed to improve treatment outcomes. To support such studies, there are only a limited number of bioanalytical methods in current literature. This work presents a fast method to quantify abiraterone and D4A in plasma in 4 min by UPLC–MS/MS. Bioanalytical method validation was performed according to the recommendations of the US Food and Drug Administration. The method was linear within the range of 1–400 ng/ml for abiraterone and 0.2–20 ng/ml for D4A (r² > 0.99). Based on the analysis of quality control samples at the lower limit of quantification, low, medium and high concentrations, the method was precise (CV_abiraterone ≤ 9.72%; CV_D4A ≤ 14.64%) and accurate (CV_abiraterone 95.51–107.59%; CV_D4A 98.04–99.89%). Application of the method to the quantification of abiraterone and D4A in 10 clinical samples revealed important variability in the conversion ratio of abiraterone to D4A (CV 90.85%). Considering the current literature, this is the fastest method to quantify abiraterone and D4A in plasma, allowing for optimization of the analytical routine.