Chemistry

The present study employs time of flight mass spectrometry for quantitative analysis of the local anesthetic drugs ropivacaine and bupivacaine in authentic, pharmaceutical and spiked human plasma as well as in the presence of their impurities 2,6-dimethylaniline and alkaline degradation product. The method is based on time of flight electron...

Two sensitive and validated methods were developed for determination of a racemic mixture citalopram and its enantiomer S-(+) escitalopram. The first method was based on direct measurement of the intrinsic fluorescence of escitalopram using sodium dodecyl sulfate as micelle enhancer. This was further applied to determine escitalopram in spiked human...

New simple spectrofluorimetric method with enhanced sensitivity has been developed and validated for the determination of the antidepressant paroxetine (PXT) in its dosage forms and plasma. The method was based on nucleophilic substitution reaction of PXT with 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole in an alkaline medium (pH 8) to form a highly fluorescent derivative...

The aim of this study is to adopt the approach of metabolic fingerprinting through the use of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) technique to understand changes in the chemical structure in Padina tetrastromatica (Hauck). The marine brown alga under study was grown in two different environmental conditions; in natural seawater (P....

This work described study protocols on the production of Palm-Based Standard Reference Materials for iodine value and slip melting point. Thirty-three laboratories collaborated in the inter-laboratory proficiency tests for characterization of iodine value, while thirty-two laboratories for characterization of slip melting point. The iodine value and slip melting point of...

A comparison of detection limits of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in selected ion monitoring (SIM) with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode with both electron ionization (EI) and negative-ion chemical ionization (NCI) are presented for over 50 pesticides ranging from organochlorines (OCs), organophosphorus pesticides (OPs)...

Several studies have been conducted to elucidate the role of free fatty acids (FFAs) in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, but the exact molecular mechanism by which FFAs alter glucose metabolism in the liver is still not completely understood.1-4 In a recent publication, Ragheb and co-workers have examined the...

Chelation therapy has been the major treatment for heavy metal poisoning. Various chelating agents have been developed and tested for treatment of heavy metal intoxications, including mercury poisoning. It has been clearly shown that chelating agents could rescue the toxicity caused by heavy metal intoxication, but the potential preventive role...

François Gagné1, M. Laura Martín-Díaz2,3 and Christian Blaise11Fluvial Ecosystem Research, Environment Canada, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. 2Cátedra UNESCO/UNITWIN/WiCop, Facultad de Ciencias del Mary Ambientales, Universidad de Cádiz, Puerto Real, Spain. 3Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucía, CSIC, Puerto Real (Cádiz), Spain. AbstractIn aquatic environments, genotoxicity results from the effects of pollution...

Shimoda and co-workers published a paper on the pharmacological properties of glycosides of the peppery compound capsaicin (1 ) and its derivative 8-nordihydrocapsaicin (2). In their paper they conclude that the β-glucoside and β-maltoside of 1 and the β-glucoside of 2 still have the same potent anti-obese activity but...

In the current study, we used immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting to examine the levels and phosphorylation status of the insulin receptor-beta subunit (IR-β), as well as the down stream target in PI3K pathway, total PKB/Akt as well as their phosphorylated forms. The assessment of FFAs treatment showed no direct and significant...

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) polyADP-ribosylates proteins involved in various physiological processes. Accumulated evidence suggests not only protein-conjugated poly(ADP-ribose) but also protein-free poly(ADP-ribose) function in various physiological processes. There are increasing occasions that require protein-free poly(ADP-ribose) to study the function and dynamics of poly(ADP-ribose) in cells. However, the availability of poly(ADP-ribose) is...

Introductory Editorial by Dr Hafiz Ahmed, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Center of Marine Biotechnology, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Chaperone therapy is a newly developed molecular approach to lysosomal diseases, a group of human genetic diseases causing severe brain damage. We found two valienamine derivatives, N-octyl-4-epi-β-valienamine (NOEV) and N-octyl-β-valienamine (NOV), as promising therapeutic agents for human β-galactosidase deficiency disorders (mainly GM1-gangliosidosis) and β-glucosidase deficiency disorders (Gaucher disease), respectively. We...

RNA is increasingly recognized for its significant functions in biological systems and has recently become an important molecular target for therapeutics development. Aminoglycosides, a large class of clinically significant antibiotics, exert their biological functions by binding to prokaryotic ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and interfering with protein translation, resulting in bacterial cell...

Pseudomonas tolaasii, P. reactans and Burkholderia gladioli pv. agaricicola, are responsible of diseases on some species of cultivated mushrooms. The main bioactive metabolites produced by both Pseudomonas strains are the lipodepsipeptides (LDPs) tolaasin I and II and the so called White Line Inducing Principle (WLIP), respectively, LDPs which have been...

Integrins have been reported to mediate cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, and migration programs. For this reason, the past few years have seen an increased interest in the implications of integrin receptors in cancer biology and tumor cell aggression. This review considers the potential role of integrins in cancer and also...

The heterogeneity of symptoms and disease progression observed in synucleinopathies, of which Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common representative, poses large problems for the discovery of novel therapeutics. The molecular basis for pathology is currently unclear, both in familial and in sporadic cases. While the therapeutic effects of L-DOPA...