Protein-Restricted Diets for Ameliorating Motor Fluctuations in Parkinson's Disease.

Levodopa is considered to be the most effective symptomatic drug for Parkinson's disease (PD). As the disease progresses, however, the patients are likely to experience a reduced response to levodopa and develop motor fluctuations (i.e., end-of-dose wearing off and unpredictable "on-off"). Protein-rich diets and elevated plasma concentrations of large neutral amino acids have been proved to impair the therapeutic effect of levodopa by reducing its absorption and influx into the brain. On the other hand, the protein-restricted diets including low-protein diet (LPD), protein-redistribution diet (PRD) and PRD with use of low-protein products can all improve the efficacy of levodopa in patients with motor fluctuations. However, it should be noted that protein-restricted diets may also contribute to several side effects, including dyskinesia, weight loss, and malnutrition (e.g., protein and calcium insufficiency). Together, protein-restricted diets are an effective approach to improve motor fluctuations in PD patients, while long-term adherence to these diets requires monitoring for side effects.

Interfacing supercritical fluid reaction apparatus with on-line liquid chromatography: monitoring the progress of a synthetic organic reaction performed in supercritical fluid solution.

An interface has been developed that connects a supercritical fluid reaction (SFR) vessel directly on-line to a liquid chromatograph. The combined SFR-LC system has enabled the progress of the esterification reaction between phenol and benzoyl chloride to synthesize phenyl benzoate in supercritical fluid carbon dioxide solution to be dynamically monitored. This was achieved by the periodic SFR-LC analysis of samples directly withdrawn from the esterification reaction mixture. Using the series of SFR-LC analysis results obtained for individual esterification reactions, the reaction progress profile for each esterification reaction was obtained by expressing the measured yield of phenyl benzoate as a function of reaction time. With reaction temperature fixed at 75°C, four sets (n=3) of SFR-LC reaction progress profiles were obtained at four different SFR pressures ranging from 13.79 to 27.58 MPa. The maximum SFR yield obtained for phenyl benzoate using a standard set of reactant concentrations was 85.2% (R.S.D. 4.2%) when the reaction was performed at 13.79 MPa for 90 min. In comparison, a phenyl benzoate yield of less than 0.3% was obtained using the same standard reactant concentrations after 90 min reaction time at 75°C using either: heptane, ethyl acetate or acetonitrile as conventional organic reaction solvents.

Sustainable oil-in-water analysis using a supercritical fluid carbon dioxide extraction system directly interfaced with infrared spectroscopy.

A direct aqueous supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) system using carbon dioxide provides a sustainable means by which a vast range of industries may continue to depend on well established infrared (IR) techniques to determine oil-in-water. The SFE-IR method provides an environmentally friendly substitute for current national standard IR reference methods for measuring oil-in-water that rely on using increasingly restricted ozone depleting solvents whose manufacture is being phased out in accordance with international law. The SFE-IR analysis of a 500 mL water sample can be accomplished in 15 min. A rapid on-line SFE-IR calibration method has been implemented. With this calibration method, SFE-IR accuracy for determining diesel oil in 500 mL spiked water samples using single wave number measurement was 86.0%-98.8% with precision (RSD) ranging from 2.5%-7.0%. Using a general purpose calculation which involves measuring infrared absorbance values at three different wave numbers, SFE-IR method accuracy for determining diesel oil in 500 mL spiked water samples was 83.7%-92.2% with RSD 1.0%-9.3%. Data is presented that indicates current long established national standard IR reference methods involving three wave number calculations should be reviewed since, without careful consideration, the inclusion of calculated aromatic hydrocarbon species contributions to final oil-in-water concentration values may provide less accurate results.

Direct aqueous supercritical fluid extraction coupled on-line with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of polyether ionophore antibiotics in water.

A direct aqueous SFE system designed to extract water samples contained in vials has been coupled on-line with a reverse phase LC-MS-MS system using a single 10-port valve. An SFE trap system using C(1) stationary phase connected to a C(18) analytical HPLC column enabled the SFE-LC-MS-MS analysis of three polyether ionophore antibiotics in water using a step gradient. A quantitative SFE-LC-MS-MS method has been developed whereby the progress of SFE can be monitored directly on-line such that ionophore recovery profile data from a single water sample can be obtained. Using a continuous direct aqueous SFE period of 75 min, the SFE-LC-MS-MS recoveries of the ionophores were: monensin 76.2% with RSD 4.1%, lasalocid 84.6% with RSD 3.8% and narasin 91.2% with RSD 3.2%. With positive ion electrospray ionization, the SFE-LC-MS-MS system using a 4 mL water sample provided multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) limits of detection for monensin and lasalocid each equivalent to 90 ng/L whereas 30 ng/L for narasin. A two-way valve controlling carbon dioxide distribution to the SFE vessel has provided a means for the initial investigation of the recovery of ionophore sodium salts from water using static SFE.