Bioequivalence study of the two 1.5 g cefoperazone and sulbactam IM injections in Thai healthy male volunteers.

OBJECTIVE: To perform a bioequivalence study of the two 1.5 g cefoperazone (1.0 g) and sulbactam (0.5 g) between Cefper and Sulperazon injections. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The present study was performed in 24 Thai healthy male volunteers who were intramuscularly injected a single dose of 1.5 g cefoperazone and sulbactam. A single dose, two periods, two sequences, double blind randomized crossover with a one-week washout period was used. Blood samples were collected before and at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12 hours after intramuscular injection and determined for cefoperazone and sulbactam plasma concentration by validated HPLC-UV methods. The pharmacokinetic parameters were analyzed by noncompartmental analysis and the ANOVA was carried out. RESULTS: Tax of both cefoperazone and sulbactam for volunteers who were injected with either Cefper or Sulperazon injection were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The 90% confidence intervals of the log of ratio of either C(max) or AUC(last) or AUC(inf) of both cefoperazone and sulbactam between 1.5 g Cefper and Sulperazon injections were within the bioequivalence range of 0.80-1.25. CONCLUSION: The 1.5 g cefoperazone and sulbactam injection of Cefper and Sulperazone used in the present study are bioequivalent.

PLGA nanoparticle--peptide conjugate effectively targets intercellular cell-adhesion molecule-1.

Targeted delivery of therapeutics possesses the potential to localize therapeutic agents to a specific tissue as a mechanism to enhance treatment efficacy and abrogate side effects. Antibodies have been used clinically as therapeutic agents and are currently being explored for targeting drug-loaded nanoparticles. Peptides such as RGD peptides are also being developed as an inexpensive and stable alternative to antibodies. In this study, cyclo(1,12)PenITDGEATDSGC (cLABL) peptide was used to target nanoparticles to human umbilical cord vascular endothelial cell (HUVEC) monolayers that have upregulated intercellular cell-adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression. The cLABL peptide has been previously demonstrated to possess high avidity for ICAM-1 receptors on the cell surface. Poly( dl-lactic-coglycolic acid) nanoparticles conjugated with polyethylene glycol and cLABL demonstrated rapid binding to HUVEC with upregulated ICAM-1, which was induced by treating cells with the proinflammatory cytokine, interferon-gamma. Binding of the nanoparticles could be efficiently blocked by preincubating cells with free peptide suggesting that the binding of the nanoparticles is specifically mediated by surface peptide binding to ICAM-1 on HUVEC. The targeted nanoparticles were rapidly endocytosed and trafficked to lysosomes to a greater extent than the untargeted PLGA-PEG nanoparticles. Verification of peptide-mediated nanoparticle targeting to ICAM-1 may ultimately lead to targeting therapeutic agents to inflammatory sites expressing upregulated ICAM-1.

Effect of pure curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin on WT1 gene expression in leukemic cell lines.

PURPOSE: Leukemias are groups of hematological malignancies with high incidence and mortality rates in patients worldwide. There have been shown in many studies that Wilms' tumor1 (WT1) gene were highly expressed in leukemic blast cells. Curcuminoids, major active components of the spice turmeric, are well known for its anticancer. Curcuminoids consist of pure curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. In this study, the effect of each curcuminoids'components on WT1 gene expression in leukemic cell lines (K562, HL60, U937, and Molt4) was investigated. METHODS: The levels of WT1 mRNA and WT1 protein in leukemic cell lines were assessed by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. RESULTS: It was found that the WT1 mRNAs were detected in all 4 types of leukemic cell lines. However, the WT1 protein levels were found only in the cell lines K562 and Molt4. Pure curcumin exhibited a strong inhibitory effect on WT1 mRNA and WT1 protein expression. The treatment of leukemic cell lines with non-cytotoxic doses (5, 10, and 15 microM) of pure curcumin for 2 days reduced the level of WT1 mRNA expression and WT1 protein in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, pure curcumin at 10 microM significantly decreased the level of WT1 mRNA and protein in a time-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: Pure curcumin, an excellent curcuminoid derivative, decreased WT1 gene expression in both transcriptional and translational levels. Thus, pure curcumin is one of a potential chemotherapeutic agent used for treatment of human leukemia. However, its chemotherapeutic property will need to be studied more in future.

Spectrofluorimetric determination of tranexamic acid in hydrogel patch formulations by derivatization with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde/cyanide.

The aim of this research was to develop and validate a spectrofluorimetric method for determination of tranexamic acid in hydrogel patch formulations. Tranexamic acid (trans-4-aminomethylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid, trans-AMCHA) is an antifibrinolytic drug that recently gained attention as a skin-whitening agent due to its inhibitory effect on ultraviolet (UV)-induced pigmentation in vivo. Derivatization with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde (NDA) in the presence of cyanide ion (CN(-)) to produce a fluorescent 1-cyanobenz[f]isoindole (CBI) product (lambda(ex) = 420 nm, lambda(em) = 480 nm) is for the first time reported for the determination of tranexamic acid in hydrogel patch formulations. Other separation techniques were not used in the analysis of the CBI-fluorescent product as required in the previous studies. The developed method was proven to be precise and accurate with percent recoveries ranging between 98.0% and 101.8% at the concentration range of 8.4-84.0 microg/ml (R(2) > 0.999). The intra- and inter-day precisions as expressed by the relative standard deviations (RSD) were below 1.85%. Derivatization of tranexamic acid with NDA/CN(-) was completed within five minutes and was stable for at least 30 minutes. The method has been applied to the analysis of drug content and release profiles in tranexamic hydrogel patch formulations.