Anthocyanins as Key Phytochemicals Acting for the Prevention of Metabolic Diseases: An Overview

Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments present in fruits and vegetables, which render them an extensive range of colors. They have a wide distribution in the human diet, are innocuous, and, based on numerous studies, have supposed preventive and therapeutical benefits against chronic affections such as inflammatory, neurological, cardiovascular, digestive disorders, diabetes, and cancer, mostly due to their antioxidant action. Despite their great potential as pharmaceutical applications, they have a rather limited use because of their rather low stability to environmental variations. Their absorption was noticed to occur best in the stomach and small intestine, but the pH fluctuation of the digestive system impacts their rapid degradation. Urine excretion and tissue distribution also occur at low rates. The aim of this review is to highlight the chemical characteristics of anthocyanins and emphasize their weaknesses regarding bioavailability. It also targets to deliver an update on the recent advances in the involvement of anthocyanins in different pathologies with a focus on in vivo, in vitro, animal, and human clinical trials.     

Intensity-related dynamics of femtosecond frequency combs

We have performed systematic studies of intensity-related dynamics of the pulse repetition and carrier-envelope offset frequencies in mode-locked Ti:sapphire lasers. We compared the results far two laser systems that have different intracavity dispersion-compensation schemes. We found that the carrier-envelope phase noise and its dynamic response depend critically on the mode-locking conditions. An intensity-related shift of the laser spectrum was found to be instrumental in interpretations.     

Development of Improved High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Determination of Residual Caprylic Acid in Formulations of Human Immunoglobulins

Quality control of human immunoglobulin formulations produced by caprylic acid precipitation necessitates a simple, rapid, and accurate method for determination of residual caprylic acid. A high-performance liquid chromatography method for that purpose was developed and validated. The method involves depletion of immunoglobulins, the major interfering components that produce high background noise, by precipitation with acetonitrile (1:1, v/v). Chromatographic analysis of caprylic acid, preserved in supernatant with no loss, was performed using a reverse-phase C18 column (2.1 × 150 mm, 3 μm) as a stationary phase and water with 0.05% TFA–acetonitrile (50:50, v/v) as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min and run time of 10 min. The developed method was successfully validated according to the ICH guidelines. The validation parameters confirmed that method was linear, accurate, precise, specific, and able to provide excellent separation of peaks corresponding to caprylic acid and the fraction of remaining immunoglobulins. Furthermore, a 2⁴⁻¹ fractional factorial design was applied in order to test the robustness of developed method. As such, the method is highly suitable for the quantification of residual caprylic acid in formulations of human immunoglobulins for therapeutic use, as demonstrated on samples produced by fractionation of convalescent anti-SARS-CoV-2 human plasma at a laboratory scale. The obtained results confirmed that the method is convenient for routine quality control.     

Adamantyl ferrocene derivatives: Antioxidant abilities and effects on model lipid membranes

A series of homoannularly and heteroannularly substituted adamantyl ferrocene derivatives has been synthesized and their effects on membrane fluidity were investigated using liposomes as the membrane models. The liposome formulations of adamantyl ferrocene derivatives were characterized by using dynamic light scattering, differential scanning calorimetry and fluorescence anisotropy measurements. It was demonstrated that adamantyl ferrocene derivatives incorporated into the liposome significantly affect the structure of the lipid bilayer. The results of the study have revealed that adamantyl ferrocene derivatives, compounds 9 – 12, partition into the hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface of the membrane, causing a significant decrease in membrane fluidity. The antioxidant potential of synthesized compounds was assessed with DPPH method and it was shown that the examined compounds possess certain antioxidant activity.     

Preconcentration and Voltammetric Determination of the Antihypertensive Doxazosin on a C8 Modified Carbon Paste Electrode

 An electrochemical study of the doxazosin oxidative process at carbon paste electrodes using different voltammetric techniques has been carried out. The process is irreversible and controlled by adsorption, giving rise to an oxidation wave around 1.0 V in citric acid-citrate buffer (pH 3.0). A mechanism based on the oxidation of the amine group is postulated. Two methods based on adsorptive stripping (AdS) of doxazosin at the C₈-modified carbon paste electrode (C₈-MCPE), before its voltammetric determination, are studied, using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) as redissolution techniques. By means of AdS-DPV and C₈-MCPE, doxazosin can be determined over the 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ to 3.0 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ range with a variation coefficient of 2.2% (2.0 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹) and a limit of detection of 7.4 ×10⁻¹⁰ mol L⁻¹. If AdS-SWV is used, a linear range from 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ to 4.0 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ is obtained, the variation coefficient being 2.8% (2.0 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹, and the limit of detection reached 7.7 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol L⁻¹. The AdS-DPV procedure was applied to the determination of doxazosin in urine and formulations. Received March 13, 1999. Revision December 23, 1999.     

Development of a new reference material for the validation of molecular detection methods for microbiological analysis

The standard methodology used for the detection of bacteria in environmental samples and food is primarily based on bacterial growth on specific culture media and confirmation by biochemical and/or immunological tests of all presumptive colonies. However, this methodology presents a number of drawbacks, such as low sensitivity and specificity, and the long time needed to obtain results. For this reason, the implementation of molecular methods in diagnostic laboratories has increased over the past several years. Nevertheless, most of these newer methods have not been included in current legislation, and, in most of cases, they have not yet been normalized. In this sense, the availability of appropriate reference materials (RMs) can help to overcome these deficiencies. The aim of this study was to develop and validate, following ISO Guide 34, a new RM, in a tablet format, for the quantification of Legionella pneumophila and Salmonella spp. by quantitative PCR (qPCR). This new RM can be used as a work reference sample in internal quality control, in the organization of proficiency testing schemes (PTS), as well as for the validation of molecular methods based on qPCR.     

Application of ultrasound-assisted acid leaching procedures for major and trace elements determination in edible seaweed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry

A new method using diluted reagents (nitric and hydrochloric acids and oxygen peroxide) and ultrasound energy to assist metals acid leaching with from edible seaweed was optimized. The method uses a first sonication at high temperature with hydrochloric acid as a previous stage to an ultrasound-assisted acid leaching with 7 ml of an acid solution containing nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide at concentrations of 3.7, 3.0 and 3.0 M, respectively. Optimum conditions for the first sonication step were ultrasound energy at 17 kHz, sonication temperature at 65 °C, an acid volume of 2 ml, an hydrochloric acid concentration of 6.0 M and a sonication time of 10 min. It has been found that the first sonication stage at high temperature with hydrochloric acid is necessary to obtain quantitative recoveries for As, Ba, Fe and V. Otherwise quantitative recoveries were reached for the other elements investigated (Ca, K, Na, Mg, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn). The repeatability of the ultrasound-assisted acid leaching method was around 10% for all elements. Adequate limit of detection and limit of quantification were reached by using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for measurements. The method resulted accurate after analysing several seaweed certified reference materials (IAEA-140/TM, NIES-03 and NIES-09). The method was finally applied to the multi-element determination in edible seaweed samples.     

Comparative study on the determination of cephalexin in its dosage forms by spectrophotometry and HPLC with UV-vis detection

This paper discusses the spectrophotometric determination of cephalexin as the intact cephalexin or as its acid-induced degradation product. Cephalexin can be determined in the range 1 × 10^–5–18 × 10^–5 M with relative standard deviations of 5-1%. The limits of quantitation and detection were 10^–5 and 0.3 × 10^–5 M, respectively. These procedures were compared with reversed-phase HPLC determination. No interference was observed in the presence of common pharmaceutical adjuvants. The H-point standard additions method was applied in order to correct for the possible presence of the cephalexin precursor, 7-aminocephalosporanic acid; this improves the selectivity of the UV-vis spectrophotometric method.