Simple and rapid determination of clonidine in pharmaceutical samples by voltammetry using a bare glassy carbon electrode

This work presents, for the first time, the voltammetric behavior of clonidine (CLO) drug and its determination, using an unmodified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). CLO exhibited only an irreversible oxidation process on the GCE, with peak potential at +0.85 V in pH 12 (vs Ag/AgCl). CLO oxidation process is pH-dependent and the electrochemical mechanisms on the GCE were proposed in acidic and basic medium. The determination of CLO was optimized in 0.1 mol L⁻¹ phosphate buffer solution at pH 12.0 using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), which provides a good linear range (0.65 to 106.00 μmol L⁻¹) and low theoretical limit of detection (0.14 μmol L⁻¹) for the quality control of this drug in pharmaceutical samples. In addition, stable responses of CLO at the GCE were obtained in the same day (RSD = 3.4 %; n = 5) and different days (RSD = 2.0 %; n = 3). Moreover, the determination of CLO in a pharmaceutical formulation using the proposed GCE-DPV method presented good accuracy, since the recovery was close to 100 % and the dosing result was in agreement with an official method (HPLC-UV). The proposed method demonstrates a good analytical performance for CLO determination in pharmaceutical samples, providing a faster, simpler and lower-cost alternative for quality control of CLO than other reported methods.     

Rapid isolation and quantification of extracellular vesicles from suspension-adapted human embryonic kidney cells using capillary-channeled polymer fiber spin-down tips

Exosomes, a subset of extracellular vesicles (EVs, 30–200-nm diameter), serve as biomolecular snapshots of their cell of origin and vehicles for intercellular communication, playing roles in biological processes, including homeostasis maintenance and immune modulation. The large-scale processing of exosomes for use as therapeutic vectors has been proposed, but these applications are limited by impure, low-yield recoveries from cell culture milieu (CCM). Current isolation methods are also limited by tedious and laborious workflows, especially toward an isolation of EVs from CCM for therapeutic applications. Employed is a rapid (<10 min) EV isolation method on a capillary-channeled polymer fiber spin-down tip format. EVs are isolated from the CCM of suspension-adapted human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293), one of the candidate cell lines for commercial EV production. This batch solid-phase extraction technique allows 10¹² EVs to be obtained from only 100-µl aliquots of milieu, processed using a benchtop centrifuge. The tip-isolated EVs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, multi-angle light scattering, absorbance quantification, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to tetraspanin marker proteins, and a protein purity assay. It is believed that the demonstrated approach has immediate relevance in research and analytical laboratories, with opportunities for production-level scale-up projected.     

Separation and identification of different therapeutic pharmaceutical drugs on humic acid-based HPLC column: Method optimization using central composite design

Multimode chromatographic separations are highly desirable in pharmaceutical and environmental sciences. Current study deals with the application of newly developed mixed-mode end capped-immobilized humic acid onto an aminopropyl silica based chromatographic column for separation and identification of six drugs belonging to different therapeutic groups for its applicability in pharmaceutical industries. For this, central composite design was used to evaluate the separation and resolution by optimization of three most effective parameters (acetonitrile%, flow rate, and pH of mobile phase). Second-order quadratic model was used to evaluate their effect on resolution of peaks; the probability value (<0.05) obtained from analysis of variance suggested the best applicability of the model. Desirability function was applied to calculate optimum conditions (44.8% acetonitrile, 1.75 mL/min of flow rate, and 7.5 pH) required to achieve maximum separation with good resolution within 11 min. The method was validated for linearity, precision accuracy, selectivity, and sensitivity. The results revealed a highly precise (coefficient of variance > 1%), linear (R² = 0.99), and highly selective method. Moreover, the limit of detection/quantification values revealed acceptable sensitivity of the method. The developed column was compared for its efficiency with a commercially available column and found to be highly applicable for industrial applications.