Targeted Hybrid Nanocarriers as a System Enhancing the Skin Structure

The skin is constantly exposed to external and internal factors that disturb its function. In this work, two nanosystems-levan nanoparticles and a surfactin-stabilized nanoemulsion were preserved (tested for microbial growth) and characterized (size, polydispersity, Zeta potential, and stability). The nanosystems were introduced in the model formulations-cream, tonic, and gel, and confirmed by TEM. The analysis showed that nanoemulsion has a spherical morphology and size 220–300 nm, while levan nanoparticles had irregular shapes independently of the use of matrix and with particle size (130–260 nm). Additionally, we examined the antiradical effect of levan nanoparticles and nanoemulsion in the prototype of formulations by scavenging DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl; EPR spectroscopy). The model cream with both nanosystems and the whole range of products with nanosystems were evaluated in vivo for hydration, elasticity, smoothness, wrinkles and vascular lesions, discoloration, respectively. The cream improved skin condition in all tested parameters in at least 50% of volunteers. The use of more comprehensive care, additionally consisting of a tonic and gel, reduced the previously existing skin discoloration to 10.42 ± 0.58%. The presented prototype formulations are promising in improving skin conditions.     

Trends in the detection of pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds by Field-Effect Transistors (FETs)

Field-effect transistors (FETs) are one of the most widely-used electronic sensors for continuous monitoring and detection of contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds at low concentrations. FETs have been successfully utilized for the rapid analysis of these environmental pollutants due to their advantageous material properties like the disposability, rapid responses and simplicity. This paper presented an up-to-date overview of applied strategies with different bio-based materials in order to enhance the analytical performances of the designed sensors. Comparison and discussion were made between characteristics of recently engineered FET bio-sensors used for the detection of famous and selected pharmaceutical compounds in the literature. The recent progress in environmental research applications, comments on interesting trends, current challenge for future research in endocrine-disrupting chemicals’ (EDCs) detection using FETs biosensors were highlighted.     

Phytochemical and Biological Evaluation of a Newly Designed Nutraceutical Self-Nanoemulsifying Self-Nanosuspension for Protection and Treatment of Cisplatin Induced Testicular Toxicity in Male Rats

The incorporation of cisplatin (CP) as a cytotoxic antineoplastic agent in most chemotherapeutic protocols is a challenge due to its toxic effect on testicular tissues. Natural compounds present a promising trend in research, so a new nutraceutical formulation (NCF) was designed to diminish CP spermatotoxicity. A combination of three nutraceutical materials, 250 mg Spirulina platensis powder (SP), 25 mg Tribulus terrestris L. extract (TT), and 100 mg fish oil (FO) were formulated in self-nanoemulsifying self-nanosuspension (SNESNS). SP was loaded into the optimized self-nanoemulsifying system (30% FO, 50% span 80/cremophor EL and 20% isopropanol) and mixed with TT aqueous solution to form SNESNS. For the SP, phytochemical profiling revealed the presence of valuable amounts of fatty acids (FAs), amino acids, flavonoids, polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and particle size analysis confirmed the formation of nanoemulsion-based nanosuspension upon dilution. Method validation of the phytochemical constituents in NCF has been developed. Furthermore, NCF was biologically evaluated on male Wistar rats and revealed the improvement of spermatozoa, histopathological features, and biochemical markers over the CP and each ingredient group. Our findings suggest the potential of NCF with SNESNS as a delivery system against CP-induced testicular toxicity in male rats.     

Novel Enzymatic Potentiometric Approaches for Surfactant Analysis

The present study described a novel application of simple potentiometric enzymatic method for analysis of surfactants based on their inhibitory effect on acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AChE). The enzymatic activity was measured through monitoring hydrolysis of acetylcholine (ACh) with a disposable acetylcholine potentiometric sensor. Comprehensive investigations were carried out including the effect of incubation time, cholinesterase enzyme and the working calibration ranges. Based on inhibition of AChE, different cationic, anionic and nonionic surfactants were determined in the concentration range from 0 to 40 μg mL⁻¹ with detection limits reaching 0.07 μg mL⁻¹ depending on the nature of surfactants. The degree of AChE inhibition caused by different tested surfactants were as follows: cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) > benzyldimethylhexadecyl ammonium chloride (BDHAC) > Hyamine (Hy)>cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) > Triton X‐100 (TX‐100) > sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The proposed method was applied for determination of surfactants in pharmaceutical formulation, detergents products and environmental samples with acceptable sensitivity and reproducibility.     

Development of a Sensor Based on Modified Carbon Paste with Com Iron(III) Protoporphyrin Immobilized on SiNbZn Silica Matrix for L‐tryptophan Determination

In this work, SiO₂/Nb₂O₅/ZnO prepared by the sol‐gel processing method was used as substrate base for immobilization of the protoporphyrin‐IX ion. Iron(III) ion was inserted into the porphyrin ring (SiNbZn‐PPFe). A simple square wave voltammetry method based on a composite sensor carbon paste electrode of this material,designed as EPC‐SiNbZn‐PPFe, was developed and validated successfully for the determination of L‐tryptophan (Trp). The optimum conditions were obtained by using sensor modified with 18.00 mg SiNbZn‐PPFe material, 12.00 mg graphite powder and 6.0 μL mineral oil and phosphate buffer 0.3 mol L⁻¹ pH 7.0. The sensitivity of the sensor was found to be 0.523 AL mol ⁻¹, linear range from 10 to 70 μmol L⁻¹ and limit of detection of 3.28 μmol L⁻¹. Therefore, the developed method was successfully applied for the Trp determination in real samples of pharmaceutical formulation and can be used for routine quality control pharmaceutical formulations containing Trp.     

Host-guest Assembly Based on γ-Cyclodextrin-functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Rutin Electrochemical Sensing

Here, we report multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) functionalized with γ-cyclodextrins (γCD) as a novel electrochemical strategy for Rutin determination, showing superior performance than β-cyclodextrins (βCD) modified MWCNTs, suggesting an adequate environment for host-guest interactions. Under optimized conditions, the sensor showed a linear range of 39–975 nmol L⁻¹ and a limit of detection of 7 nmol L⁻¹. When tested with quercetin, catechin, and caffeine, the platform presented high selectivity with an interference response <10 %. The method was employed to quantify Rutin in spiked pharmaceutical and herbal extracts, providing recovery of 93–98.4 %. Also, HPLC-PDA confirmed the method‘s accuracy.     

Optical resolution of new quinolone drugs by capillary electrophoresis with ligand-exchange and host-guest interactions

A method for the optical resolution of new quinolone drugs (NQs) by capillary electrophoresis has been investigated. The NQs were adequately resolved using a γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD)-Zn(II)- -phenylalanine ( -Phe) solution as the running solution. The resolution depended on the components of the running solution and their concentrations. When -Phe was used instead of -Phe, inversion of the migration order of the enantiomers was observed. The resolution mechanism is considered to be due to a ligand-exchange interaction of the NQs with Zn(II) and -Phe, in combination with a host-guest interaction of those with γ-CD.     

Higher-order streamfunction-vorticity formulation of 2D steady-state Navier-Stokes equations

Based on regular boundary element method and a kind of linearity invariance under homotopy, a kind of numerical scheme of 2D steady-state Navier-Stokes equation in streamfunction-vorticity formulation is described. The flow inside a square cavity is used to illustrate this numerical scheme.     

Application of PLS regression to fluorimetric data for the determination of furosemide and triamterene in pharmaceutical preparations and triamterene in urine

Multivariate calibration methods that use fluorescence data for the simultaneous determination of furosemide and triamterene were developed. One of the most salient advantages of them is that the vast amount of information provided by the whole spectrum of the sample is not required. This makes analyses simple and fast. The methods require selecting chemometric parameters such as the specific spectral region and number of factors to be used. Both spectral region and number of factors are selected, simultaneously, by minimising the prediction residual error sum of squares (PRESS).The proposed methods were used for the simultaneous determination of the two drugs in real samples (pharmaceutical preparations) with no excipient separation pre-treatment, with furosemide and triamterene contents of 1.68E−3 to 4.31E−2 and 1.03E−3 to 3.12E−2 μg ml⁻¹, respectively; as well as that of triamterene at concentrations of 5.00E−4 to 5.80E−3 μg ml⁻¹ in urine samples. The ability to construct the calibration validation sets directly from the urine samples itself avoids the need to consider matrix interferences or to pre-treat the sample and/or separate some analytes The results were quite good in all cases.     

Substructuring preconditioners for the three fields domain decomposition method

We study a class of preconditioners based on substructuring, for the discrete Steklov-Poincaré operator arising in the three fields formulation of domain decomposition in two dimensions. Under extremely general assumptions on the discretization spaces involved, an upper bound is provided on the condition number of the preconditioned system, which is shown to grow at most as ( and denoting, respectively, the diameter and the discretization mesh-size of the subdomains). Extensive numerical tests--performed on both a plain and a stabilized version of the method--confirm the optimality of such bound.