LC–MS–MS Study of the Pharmacokinetics of a 9-β-Dihydro-9,10-O-acetal Derivative of Docetaxel in Rats and Beagle Dogs

SHR110008 is a representative 9-β-dihydro-9,10-O-acetal taxane with greater anticancer activity and less toxicity than docetaxel. To support a preclinical study of its pharmacokinetics and to predict the effect of 9-β-dihydro-9,10-O-acetal modification on its pharmacokinetic properties, we have developed a sensitive and rapid liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric method for quantitative analysis of SHR110008 in rat and dog plasma. Plasma was extracted with ethyl acetate. The analytes were separated on a 150 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm particle, reversed-phase C₁₈ column with 90:10 (v/v) methanol–0.1% formic acid as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.3 mL min⁻¹. Detection was performed by triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode with an electrospray ionization source. The precursor-to-product ion transition m/z 933 → 142 was used. The method was validated for accuracy and precision, and linearity in the two matrices was good. Lower limits of quantification (LLOQ) in rat and dog plasma were 5 and 2 ng mL⁻¹, respectively. There were no stability-related problems in the procedure for analysis of SHR110008. The method was successfully used in a preclinical study of the pharmacokinetics of SHR110008 in rats and beagle dogs. The pharmacokinetics of SHR110008 were non-linear in rats and dogs. The elimination half-life ranged from 5.18 to 7.32 h for the rats and from 6.42 to 8.42 h for the dogs.

     

LC–MS–MS Study of the Pharmacokinetics of a 9-β-Dihydro-9,10-O-acetal Derivative of Docetaxel in Rats and Beagle Dogs

SHR110008 is a representative 9-β-dihydro-9,10-O-acetal taxane with greater anticancer activity and less toxicity than docetaxel. To support a preclinical study of its pharmacokinetics and to predict the effect of 9-β-dihydro-9,10-O-acetal modification on its pharmacokinetic properties, we have developed a sensitive and rapid liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric method for quantitative analysis of SHR110008 in rat and dog plasma. Plasma was extracted with ethyl acetate. The analytes were separated on a 150 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm particle, reversed-phase C₁₈ column with 90:10 (v/v) methanol–0.1% formic acid as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.3 mL min^?1. Detection was performed by triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode with an electrospray ionization source. The precursor-to-product ion transition m/z 933 → 142 was used. The method was validated for accuracy and precision, and linearity in the two matrices was good. Lower limits of quantification (LLOQ) in rat and dog plasma were 5 and 2 ng mL^?1, respectively. There were no stability-related problems in the procedure for analysis of SHR110008. The method was successfully used in a preclinical study of the pharmacokinetics of SHR110008 in rats and beagle dogs. The pharmacokinetics of SHR110008 were non-linear in rats and dogs. The elimination half-life ranged from 5.18 to 7.32 h for the rats and from 6.42 to 8.42 h for the dogs.     

Biomolecular interaction monitoring of autoantibodies by scanning surface plasmon resonance microarray imaging

A new commercial surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging analysis system with a novel SPR dip angle scanning principle allows the measurement, without the need for labeling, of the exact SPR dip angle. With this system hundreds of biomolecular interactions can be monitored on microarrays simultaneously and with great precision. The potency of this system is demonstrated by automatically monitoring the interactions between citrullinated peptides and serum autoantibodies of 50 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and 29 controls in a single step. The smallest antibody concentration that could be measured in this experimental setup was 0.5 pM.     

Asymmetrical hippocampal connectivity in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: evidence from resting state fMRI

Background

Recent studies have shown that the human right-hemispheric auditory cortex is particularly sensitive to reduction in sound quality, with an increase in distortion resulting in an amplification of the auditory N1m response measured in the magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we examined whether this sensitivity is specific to the processing of acoustic properties of speech or whether it can be observed also in the processing of sounds with a simple spectral structure. We degraded speech stimuli (vowel /a/), complex non-speech stimuli (a composite of five sinusoidals), and sinusoidal tones by decreasing the amplitude resolution of the signal waveform. The amplitude resolution was impoverished by reducing the number of bits to represent the signal samples. Auditory evoked magnetic fields (AEFs) were measured in the left and right hemisphere of sixteen healthy subjects.

Results

We found that the AEF amplitudes increased significantly with stimulus distortion for all stimulus types, which indicates that the right-hemispheric N1m sensitivity is not related exclusively to degradation of acoustic properties of speech. In addition, the P1m and P2m responses were amplified with increasing distortion similarly in both hemispheres. The AEF latencies were not systematically affected by the distortion.

Conclusions

We propose that the increased activity of AEFs reflects cortical processing of acoustic properties common to both speech and non-speech stimuli. More specifically, the enhancement is most likely caused by spectral changes brought about by the decrease of amplitude resolution, in particular the introduction of periodic, signal-dependent distortion to the original sound. Converging evidence suggests that the observed AEF amplification could reflect cortical sensitivity to periodic sounds.     

Deficient brain snRNP70K in patients with Down syndrome

The small nuclear ribonucleoprotein 70K (snRNP 70K; U1-70 kDa) is an integral part of the spliceosome, a large RNA-protein complex catalyzing the removal of introns from nuclear pre-mRNA. snRNP is one of the best-studied essential subunits of snRNPs, is highly conserved and its inactivation was shown to result in complete inhibition of splicing. Applying subtractive hybridization, we found a sequence with 100% identity to snRNP absent in fetal Down syndrome (DS) brain. This observation made us determine snRNP-mRNA steady-state levels and protein levels in brains of adult patients with DS. snRNP-mRNA and protein levels of five individual brain regions of DS and controls each, were determined by blotting techniques. snRNP-mRNA steady state levels were significantly decreased in DS brain. Performing Western blots with monoclonal and human antibodies, snRNP protein levels were decreased in several regions of DS brain, although one monoclonal antibody did not reveal different snRNP-immunoreactivity. Although decreased snRNP-protein could be explained by decreased mRNA-steady state levels, another underlying mechanism might be suggested: snRNP is one of the death substrates rapidly cleaved during apoptosis by interleukin-1-beta-converting enzyme-like (ICE) proteases, which was well-documented by several groups. As apoptosis is unrequivocally taking place in DS brain leading to permanent cell loses, decreased snRNP-protein levels may therefore reflect decreased synthesis and increased apoptosis-related proteolytic cleavage.