Functionalized Ultrasmall Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for T1-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Tumor Hypoxia

Hypoxia is a common biological condition in many malignant solid tumors that plays an imperative role in regulating tumor growth and impacting the treatment’s therapeutic effect. Therefore, the hypoxia assessment is of great significance in predicting tumor development and evaluating its prognosis. Among the plenty of existing tumor diagnosis techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers certain distinctive features, such as being free of ionizing radiation and providing images with a high spatial resolution. In this study, we develop a fluorescent traceable and hypoxia-sensitive T₁-weighted MRI probe (Fe₃O₄-Met-Cy5.5) via conjugating notable hypoxia-sensitive metronidazole moiety and Cy5.5 dye with ultrasmall iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles. The results of in vitro and in vivo experiments show that Fe₃O₄-Met-Cy5.5 has excellent performance in relaxivity, biocompatibility, and hypoxia specificity. More importantly, the obvious signal enhancement in hypoxic areas indicates that the probe has great feasibility for sensing tumor hypoxia via T₁-weighted MRI. These promising results may unlock the potential of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles as T₁-weighted contrast agents for the development of clinical hypoxia probes.     

铜-金属有机框架物修饰电极的制备及甲硝唑测定

在玻碳电极表面聚合一层对氨基苯甲酸导电膜,通过羧基配位作用将具有优良导电性及催化能力的铜金属有机框架化合物(Cu-MOFs)自组装在对氨基苯甲酸修饰电极表面,制备了铜-金属有机框架物修饰电极。对Cu-MOFs进行了表征,研究了修饰电极的伏安特征及对甲硝唑(MNZ)的电催化特性,建立了一种高灵敏度的测定甲硝唑的电化学分析方法。在1.0~100.0μmol/L浓度范围内,MNZ的还原电流与其浓度呈良好的线性关系,检出限达0.23μmol/L,方法已用于蜂蜜样品中MNZ的测定。     

细菌性阴道病与甲硝唑治疗对妊娠结局的影响探讨

目的探讨细菌性阴道病和甲硝唑治疗对妊娠结局的影响。方法选取吉水县醪桥镇人口与计划生育服务所2014年7月至2015年7月收治的120例中晚期妊娠合并BV者,根据自愿原则分为治疗组和未治疗组(C组)。治疗组中口服用药为A组,阴道用药为B组。结果治疗组中两种不同用药方式都对妊娠合并BV患者有着显著的治疗效果,两组比较无统计学意义(P0.05);治疗组妊娠结局总不良率仅为10%,未治疗组中总不良率高达73.3%,对比差距显著,具备统计学意义(P0.05)。结论对妊娠期合并细菌性阴道病妇女使用甲硝唑治疗,对提升妊娠期妇女生活品质和降低不良妊娠风险有着关键的作用,同时具有十分重要的参考意义。     

Normal Vibrations of Water in 1:1 Complexes

IR spectra of water in 1:1 complexes (HOH…B) show a characteristic change of the vibration frequencies v₁, v₂ and v₃ for differently strong bases (B). The normal vibrations in different complexes are calculated from the frequencies and the force constants f_OH, f_α, f_OH,OH. The normal vibrations show that v₃ (1:1) becomes the “free” and v₁ (1:1) the “bonded” OH vibration. The degree of coupling in these systems can be deduced directly from the observed band separation. For a base like water the degree of coupling in 1:1 complexes is about 40%.     

Tannic acid-coated zeolite Y nanoparticles as novel drug nanocarrier with controlled release behavior and anti-protozoan activity against Trichomonas gallinae

In this study, a pH-sensitive drug release system was prepared by zeolite Y nanoparticles and tannic acid. Zeolite Y nanoparticles were synthesized via hydrothermal synthesis of colloidal suspensions and after that, were coated with tannic acid. In order to evaluate its performance, metronidazole as an anti-protozoan drug was loaded into nanocarriers via immersing method to study the in-vitro drug delivery behavior. This nanocomposite carriers represented pH-sensitive behavior and had more and faster release in acidic medium. In-vitro effects of metronidazole-loaded nanoparticles was measured against Trichomonas gallinae trophozoites in Trypticase Yeast extract Maltose medium. The results suggested that metronidazole-loaded and tannic acid-modified zeolite Y nanoparticles could be a potential anti-trichomonal agent.     

Nondestructive Discrimination of Pharmaceutical Preparations Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis

Metronidazole is a widely used antibacterial and amoebicide drug. The feasibility of the classification of metronidazole samples with respect to their brands was investigated by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy along with chemometrics. A total of 92 samples of different lots and four brands were collected for measurements. First, principal component analysis was conducted to visualize the difference between metronidazole samples of different brands. Then, based on an effective classifier-independent method, i.e., joint mutual information, only the 30 most important variables were selected for modeling. From the independent test set, the partial least-squares discriminant analysis model based on the reduced variable set was compared with the corresponding full-spectrum model using all variables, which indicates the model based on the reduced variable set outperforms the full-spectrum model. It appears that the combination of NIR spectroscopy, joint mutual information, and partial least-squares discriminant analysis is a potential method for the classification of metronidazole from different brands and can, therefore, be used in the screening of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.     

Efficient and selective separation of metronidazole from human serum by using molecularly imprinted magnetic nanoparticles

Magnetic molecularly imprinted nanoparticles were prepared through surface‐initiated reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization by using metronidazole as a template. The molecularly imprinted magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometry. The adsorption characteristics were also investigated and the kinetics of the adsorption of metronidazole on the imprinted nanoparticles were described by the second‐order kinetic model with the short equilibrium adsorption time (30 min). The adsorption isotherm was well matched with the Langmuir isotherm in which the maximum adsorption capacity was calculated to be 40.1 mg/g. Furthermore, the imprinted magnetic nanoparticles showed good selectivity as well as reusability even after six adsorption–desorption cycles. The imprinted magnetic nanoparticles were used as a sorbent for the selective separation of metronidazole from human serum. The recoveries of metronidazole from human serum changed between 97.5 and 99.8% and showed similar sensitivity as an enzyme‐linked immunoassay method. Therefore, the molecularly imprinted magnetic nanoparticles might have potential application for the selective and reliable separation of metronidazole from biological fluids in clinical applications.     

An eco-friendly multi-analyte high-performance thin layer chromatographic densitometric determination of amoxicillin,metronidazole, and famotidine in their ternary mixtures and simulated gastric juice: A promising protocol for eradicating Helicobacter pylori

Gastrointestinal tract disorders constitute a heavy burden to healthcare providers. To eradicate Helicobacter pylori infection, different triple therapy protocols have been proposed. Among which are combinations of proton pump inhibitors (e.g., omeprazole), histamine-2 receptor antagonists (e.g., famotidine), along with antibiotics (e.g., amoxicillin). In this work, a sensitive and accurate high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of amoxicillin, metronidazole, and famotidine in bulk powder and laboratory-prepared combined-tablet mixtures. Complete separation of the cited compounds was achieved using pre-coated silica gel plates with a mixture of methanol:chloroform:toluene:water:glacial acetic acid (5:2:1.5:0.5:0.1 v/v/v/v/v) as the mobile phase. The method was fully validated as per the international conference of harmonization guidelines. Good linearity, a correlation coefficient of 0.9991, was obtained in the concentration ranges 0.1–1.6 μg/band (amoxicillin), 0.1–0.9 μg/band (metronidazole), and 0.1–0.9 μg/band (famotidine). Since the method allowed the determination of the three compounds in combined tablets with a high degree of selectivity, accuracy, precision, with cost-effectiveness, it could be used for regular quality control. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed method was extended to the determination of the ternary mixture in simulated gastric juice. Method greenness was assessed using different green metrics.     

Heterogeneous Photocatalysis of Metronidazole in Aquatic Samples

Metronidazole (MET) is a commonly detected contaminant in the environment. The compound is classified as poorly biodegradable and highly soluble in water. Heterogeneous photocatalysis is the most promoted water purification method due to the possibility of using sunlight and small amounts of a catalyst needed for the process. The aim of this study was to select conditions for photocatalytic removal of metronidazole from aquatic samples. The effect of catalyst type, mass, and irradiance intensity on the efficiency of metronidazole removal was determined. For this purpose, TiO₂, ZnO, ZrO₂, WO₃, PbS, and their mixtures in a mass ratio of 1:1 were used. In this study, the transformation products formed were identified, and the mineralization degree of compound was determined. The efficiency of metronidazole removal depending on the type of catalyst was in the range of 50–95%. The highest MET conversion (95%) combined with a high degree of mineralization (70.3%) was obtained by using a mixture of 12.5 g TiO₂–P25 + PbS (1:1; v/v) and running the process for 60 min at an irradiance of 1000 W m⁻². Four MET degradation products were identified by untargeted analysis, formed by the rearrangement of the metronidazole and the C-C bond breaking.     

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of Metronidazole-derived Compound

A MET-OH derivative,MET-OTs 1,was designed,prepared and structurally charac-terized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. X-ray structure analysis reveals that 1 crystallizes in the monoclinic system,space group P21/c,with a=16.1178(14),b=7.5473(6),c=13.4161(11),V= 1520.3(2)3,β=111.3210(10)o,Z=4,Dc=1.421 g/cm3 and F(000)=680.