Development and validation of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric method for simultaneous determination of moxifloxacin and ketorolac in rat plasma: application to pharmacokinetic study

A highly sensitive, selective and rapid liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC‐MS) method has been developed and validated for simultaneous determination of moxifloxacin (MFX) and ketorolac (KTC) in rat plasma. Gemifloxacin (GFX) was used as an internal standard (IS). A simple protein precipitation method was used for the extraction of analytes from rat plasma. Effective chromatographic separation of MFX, KTC and GFX was achieved on a Kromasil C₁₈ column (100 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile–10 mm ammonium acetate (pH 2.5)–0.1% formic acid (50:25:25) in an isocratic elution, followed by detection with positive ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry using target ions of [M + H]⁺ at m/z 402 for MFX, m/z 256 for KTC and m/z 390 for GFX in selective ion recording mode. The method was validated over the calibration range of 5–100 ng/mL for MFX and 10–6000 ng/mL for KTC. The method demonstrated good performances in terms of intra‐ and inter‐day precision (0.97–5.33%) and accuracy (93.91–101.58%) for both MFX and KTC, including lower and upper limits of quantification. The recoveries from spiked control samples were >75% for MFX and >79% for KTC. The matrix effect was found to be negligible and the stability data were within acceptable limits. Further, the method was also successfully applied to a single‐dose pharmacokinetic study in rats. This method can be extended to measure plasma concentrations of both drugs in human to understand drug interaction and adverse effects. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Epoxy functional copolymers as biospecific adsorbents for purification of enzymes

The affinity chromatographic characteristics of some chemically modified copolymers based on glycidyl methacrylate have been evaluated. The copolymers were modified by means of reaction of suitable ligands with epoxy groups. Purification of pencillin acylase was carried out using these matrices as the stationary phase in the chromatographic column. Effect of the nature of the ligands and pH on the binding and desorption efficiency of the enzyme was evaluated.     

Averaging of Singularly Perturbed Controlled Stochastic Differential Equations

An averaged system to approximate the slow dynamics of a two timescale nonlinear stochastic control system is introduced. Validity of the approximation is established. Special cases are considered to illustrate the general theory.     

Novel approaches to the purification of penicillin acylase

Penicillin acylase ofE. coli NCIM 2400 has been purified to homogeneity using a combination of hydrophobic interaction chromatography and DEAE-cellulose treatment. A variety of substituted matrices were synthesized using D- or DL-phenylglycine, norleucine, ampicillin, or amoxycillin as ligands, all of which retained penicillin acylase at high concentrations of ammonium sulfate or sodium sulfate. The enzyme could be eluted nonbiospecifically by buffer of lower ionic strength with over 95% recovery of the activity. Ammonium chloride, ammonium nitrate, sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, and potassium chloride were ineffective in either adsorption or elution of the enzyme on these columns. Further purification of this partially pure enzyme with DEAE-cellulose at pH 7.0–7.2 yielded an enzyme preparation of very high purity according to electrophoretic and ultracentrifugal analyses, its specific activity being as high as 37 U/mg protein. The purifiedf enzyme has a molecular weight of 67,000 a sedimentation coefficient of 4.0S, and resolves into two forms upon isoelectric focusing. Overall recoveries ranged between 75 and 85%. Ease of operation, high recoveries, high purity of the enzyme and prolonged reuse of the conjugates make the process economically feasible and possibly of great commercial importance.     

A Quantitative Structure–Reactivity Assessment of Phenols by Investigation of Rapid Iodination Kinetics Using Hydrodynamic Voltammetry: Applicability of the Hammett Equation in Aqueous Medium

Halogenations of aromatic substrates in aqueous medium are essentially electrophilic substitutions proceeding at rates concomitant with the nature of the substrates and substituent motifs. Kinetics as an investigatory tool for the quantitative assessment of the structure–reactivity correlation in these reactions for a diverse range of substrates has rarely been reported, presumably due to the rapidity of these reactions in aqueous medium. We have used hydrodynamic voltammetry to investigate the rapid kinetics of uncatalyzed iodination of phenol and eight substituted phenols by iodine monochloride at constant pH in aqueous medium. The Arrhenius plots for these reactions yield comprehensive kinetic and thermodynamic data. The quantitative structure–reactivity correlation stemming from the regio‐ and stereospecificity of the substituent motifs on the substrates has been examined through the Hammett plot, which shows a negative slope of 1.87. The magnitudes of the rate constants, energies of activation, frequency factors, and entropy change obtained for the nine fast reactions reported, reflect the relative ease of the reaction dynamics in quantitative terms thereby ascertaining the relative reactivities of the phenols studied herein.     

Quasi-stationary distributions as centrality measures for the giant strongly connected component of a reducible graph

A random walk can be used as a centrality measure of a directed graph. However, if the graph is reducible the random walk will be absorbed in some subset of nodes and will never visit the rest of the graph. In Google PageRank the problem was solved by the introduction of uniform random jumps with some probability. Up to the present, there is no final answer to the question about the choice of this probability. We propose to use a parameter-free centrality measure which is based on the notion of a quasi-stationary distribution. Specifically, we suggest four quasi-stationary based centrality measures, analyze them and conclude that they produce approximately the same ranking.     

Dynamics of individual specialization and global diversification in communities

We discuss a model of an economic community consisting of N interacting agents. The state of each agent at any time is characterized, in general, by a mixed strategy profile drawn from a space of s pure strategies. The community evolves as agents update their strategy profiles in response to payoffs received from other agents. The evolution equation is a generalization of the replicator equation. We argue that when N is sufficiently large and the payoff matrix elements satisfy suitable inequalities, the community evolves to retain the full diversity of available strategies even as individual agents specialize to pure strategies. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Routine analysis by high precision gas chromatography/mass selective detector/isotope ratio mass spectrometry to 0.1 parts per mil

Stable isotope methods are potentially quite useful for validating natural or enhanced mineral degradation of contaminants. For this reason, a continuous flow gas chromatograph (GC), isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) has been coupled with a quadrupole mass selective detector (MSD) to allow simultaneous mass spectral and stable carbon isotope ratio data to be obtained from a single chromatographic analysis. This allows the target contaminant and any extra-cellular degradation intermediates to be both qualified and quantified. Previously acceptable limits of precision (0.3 parts per mil) are undesirable given the small fractionation observed during aerobic degradation. To further understand the fate of organic contaminants and to gain information about the metabolic degradative pathway employed by a microorganism, routine isotopic analyses on a range of analytes have been performed. Quantities of sample producing mass-44 ion beam signal (I(44)) of 2 x 10(-10) to 1 x 10(-8) A were analysed. When the IRMS was tuned for high sensitivity, ion source nonlinearities were overcome by peak height correction from an algorithm that was produced using known isotopic standards of varying concentrations. This led to sample accuracy of <0.01 per thousand and sample precision of 0.1 per thousand. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Frequency scan for the analysis of high mass ions generated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization in a paul trap

An ion trap has been modified for the analysis of high mass ions generated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization. Samples are deposited on a probe tip and introduced directly onto the hyperbolically shaped surface of one endcap. All three electrodes - both the endcaps and the ring electrode - are insulated so that the radio frequency (Rf) voltage may be applied to the center ring electrode and the inverted Rf voltage to the endcaps. By using low frequencies (below 100 kHz) and low amplitudes (below 200 V), high mass singly charged ions may be trapped and analyzed by a frequency sweep at constant amplitude. In the high mass range (60-160 kDa), this instrument showed good sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratios, and mass resolution. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.