Fast determination of aristolochic acid I (AAI) in traditional Chinese medicine soup with magnetic solid-phase extraction by high performance liquid chromatography.

In this paper, a novel core-shell structure magnetic microsphere Fe3O4@SiO2-TPM@StVp(Fe3O4@SiO2-3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate@styrene and n-vinylpyrrolidone) was successfully synthesized and used as a magnetic solid-phase extraction adsorbent for extraction of aristolochic acid I (AAI) in traditional Chinese medicine soup. The prepared Fe3O4@SiO2-TPM@StVp was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The microspheres have various advantages of excellent hydrophilicity and π-electron system, which is very suitable for determining target analytes followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The main factors, including the pH of samples, amount of adsorbent, adsorption time, elution solvent and desorption time, were optimized. Under optimal conditions, the proposed method showed a wide linear range of 0.4-10 µg/mL and a good correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9918). The pretreatment procedure was achieved within 10 min. The recoveries of aristolochic acid I in real samples range from 80.9% to 89.6% with relative standard deviations less than 4.9%, highlighting the accuracy of this method.

The synthesis of Zr-metal-organic framework functionalized magnetic graphene nanocomposites as an adsorbent for fast determination of multi-pesticide residues in tobacco samples.

In this paper, a simple and reliable method has been established to determine the residues of nine pesticides in tobacco by using GC-MS coupled with magnetic solid phase extraction. A novel magnetic Zr-MOF nanocomposite based on graphene was synthesized, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy and N2 adsorption-desorption measurements. The prepared material has the advantage of large surface area (178 m2/g), good magnetic response and high thermal stability, which is shown to be suited for the fast enrichment of multi-pesticides in tobacco matrix. The extraction conditions including amount of adsorbent, adsorption time, eluting solvent as well as desorption time were investigated. The whole process of pretreatment is accomplished within 10 min. This method shows low limit of detection, wide linear range and good reproducibility (relative standard deviations <12.7%), satisfactory recoveries were obtained, ranging from 57.9% to 126.3% for tobacco samples.

The role of the cell cycle in the cellular uptake of folate-modified poly(L-amino acid) micelles in a cell population.

Nanoparticles are widely recognized as a vehicle for tumor-targeted therapies. There are many factors that can influence the uptake of nanoparticles, such as the size of the nanoparticles, and/or their shape, elasticity, surface charge and even the cell cycle phase. However, the influence of the cell cycle on the active targeting of a drug delivery system has been unknown until now. In this study, we initially investigated the folate receptor α (FR-α) expression in different phases of HeLa cells by flow cytometric and immunocytochemical methods. The results obtained showed that FR-α expression was cell cycle-dependent, i.e. the S cells' folate receptor expression was the highest as the cell progressed through its cycle. Then, we used folate modified poly(L-amino acid) micelles (FA-PM) as an example to investigate the influence of the cell cycle on the active targeting drug delivery system. The results obtained indicated that the uptake of FA-PM by cells was influenced by the cell cycle phase, and the S cells took up the greatest number of folate conjugated nanoparticles. Our findings suggest that future studies on ligand-mediated active targeting preparations should consider the cell cycle, especially when this system is used for a cell cycle-specific drug.