A rapid, simple, specific liquid chromatographic-electrospray mass spectrometry method for the determination of finasteride in human plasma and its application to pharmacokinetic study.

A fast, accurate, sensitive, selective and reliable method using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry coupling with an electrospray ionization interface was developed and validated for the determination of finasteride in human plasma. After deprotienation with acetonitrile, centrifugation, evaporation to dryness and dissolving in mobile phase, satisfactory separation was achieved on a Hypersil-Keystone C(18) reversed-phase column using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-water (46:54, v/v), 0.1% acetic acid and 0.1% trifluoracetic acid. Carbamazepine (IS) was used as internal standard. This method involved the use of the [M+H](+) ions of finasteride and IS at m/z 373 and 237 with the selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.2-120 ng ml(-1). The limit of quantification for finasteride in plasma was 0.2 ng ml(-1) with good accuracy and precision. The intra-assay precision and accuracy were in the range of 2.1-11.2% and -1.3% to 8.5%, respectively. The inter-assay precision and accuracy were in the order of 3.4-12.1% and -1.5% to 11.5%, respectively. The mean sample extract recoveries of the method were higher than 85% and 74% for finasteride and internal standard (IS), respectively. The assay has been successfully used to estimate the pharmacokinetics of finasteride after oral administration of a 5mg tablet of finasteride to 24 healthy volunteers.

Desorption corona beam ionisation (DCBI) mass spectrometry for in-situ analysis of adsorbed phenol in cigarette acetate fiber filter.

The study of spatial distribution characteristics of the adsorbed compounds for absorbent materials has significant importance in understanding the behaviors of aerosols while they migrating in the absorbent materials. Herein, for the first time, desorption corona beam ionization-mass spectrometry (DCBI-MS) has proposed for direct in-situ analysis of adsorbed aerosol for absorbent materials. DCBI is a novel atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI)-related technique developed by our group in recent years. It can facilitate accurately localizing sampling by forming a visible thin corona beam and avoid the risk of sample contamination and matrix interference compared with other similar techniques. The advantages of DCBI-MS allow rapid screening of the spatial distribution characteristics of the adsorbed compounds for absorbent materials. The distribution characteristic of phenol in cigarette filter tip filled with cellulose acetate fiber was studied as a model case for demonstrating the feasibility of the developed method. As a comparison, conventional HPLC was also used for the study of the distribution characteristic of phenol. The results revealed DCBI-MS had highly improved assay simplicity in spatial distribution characteristic analysis of phenol for the acetate fiber tip, therefore, exhibiting a great potential for convenient, rapid and cost-efficient analysis of the spatial distribution characteristic investigation of adsorbed compounds for adsorbent materials.

Adaptive variable-weighted support vector machine as optimized by particle swarm optimization algorithm with application of QSAR studies.

Representing a compound by a numerous structural descriptors becomes common in quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies. As every descriptor carries molecular structure information more or less, it seems more advisable to investigate all the possible descriptor vectors rather than traditional variable selection when building a QSAR model. Based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, a more flexible descriptor selection and model construction method variable-weighted support vector machine (VW-SVM) is proposed. The new strategy adopted in this paper is to weight all structural descriptors with continuous non-negative values rather than removing or reserving any ones arbitrarily. The manner of invoking PSO to seek non-negative weights of variables can be regarded as a process of searching optimized rescaling for every molecular structural descriptor. Moreover, PSO is employed to search the optimal parameters of VW-SVM model besides variable weights, enables the construction of a rational and adaptive parameter-free QSAR model according to the performance of the total model. Results obtained by investigating glycogen synthase kinase-3α inhibitors and carbonic anhydrase II inhibitors indicate VW-SVM can hold more useful structure information of compounds than other methods as optimally weighting all the descriptors, consequently leading to precisely QSAR models coupled with developed performance both in training and in prediction.

Alteration of transcriptional profile in human bronchial epithelial cells induced by cigarette smoke condensate.

Despite the significance of cigarette smoke for carcinogenesis, the molecular mechanisms that lead to increased susceptibility of human cancers are not well-understood. In our present study, the oncogenic transforming effects of cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) were examined using papillomavirus-immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells (BEP2D). Growth kinetics, saturation density, resistance to serum-induced terminal differentiation, anchorage-independent growth and tumorigenicity in nude mice were used to investigate the various stages of transformation in BEP2D cells. Illumina microarray platforms were used to explore the CSC-induced alteration of global mRNA expression profiles of the earlier period and the advanced stage of CSC-treated BEP2D cells. We showed here that a series of sequential steps arose among CSC-treated immortalized human bronchial epithelial cells, including altered growth kinetics, resistance to serum-induced terminal differentiation, and anchorage-independence growth. In the earlier period of CSC treatment, 265 genes were down-regulated and 63 genes were up-regulated, respectively, and in the advanced stage of CSC treatment, 313 genes were down-regulated and 145 genes were up-regulated, respectively. Notably, among those genes, the expression of some of imprinted genes such as IGF2, NDN, H19 and MEG3 were all silenced or down-regulated in CSC-treated cells. These genes reactivated after 5 microM 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC) treatment. These results demonstrated that long-term treatment of human bronchial epithelial cells with CSC may adversely affect their genetic and epigenetic integrity and lead to further transformation.

Fingerprint developing of coffee flavor by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and combined chemometrics methods.

In this paper, chromatographic fingerprint was firstly used for quality control of tobacco flavors. Based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and combined chemometrics methods, a simple, reliable and reproducible method for developing chromatographic fingerprint of coffee flavor, one of tobacco flavors, was described. Six coffee flavor samples obtained from different locations were used to establish the fingerprint. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of coffee flavor sample from Shenzhen was completed with the help of subwindow factor analysis (SFA). Fifty-two components of 68 separated constituents in coffee flavor sample from Shenzhen, accounting for 88.42% of the total content, were identified and quantified. Then, spectral correlative chromatography (SCC) was used to extract the common peaks from other five studied coffee flavor samples. Thirty-eight components were found to exist in all six samples. Finally, the method validation of fingerprint analysis was performed based on the relative retention time and the relative peak area of common peaks, sample stability and similarity analysis. The similarities of six coffee flavor samples were more than 0.9104 and showed that samples from different locations were consistent to some extent. The developed chromatographic fingerprint was successfully used to differentiate coffee flavor from cocoa flavor and some little difference sample prepared with coffee flavor and cocoa flavor by both similarity comparison and principal component projection analysis. The developed method can be used for quality control of coffee flavor.

Comparative analysis of the volatile components in cut tobacco from different locations with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and combined chemometric methods.

A combined approach of subwindow factor analysis and orthogonal projection resolution was used to analyze the volatile components of cut tobacco samples from different sources. After extracted with simultaneous distillation and extraction method, the volatile components in cut tobacco from five different locations were detected by GC-MS. Then, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the volatile components of cut tobacco from Changde area was completed with the help of subwindow factor analysis resolving two-dimensional original data into pure mass spectra and chromatograms. One hundred and two volatile components among 138 separated peaks were identified and quantified, accounting for about 88.90% of the total content. Finally, orthogonal projection method was used to extract the common peaks from different locations. Among the identified components, there were 74 components coexisting in five studied samples although the relative content of each component showed difference to some extent. The results showed a fair consistency in their GC-MS fingerprints. It was the first time to apply orthogonal projection method to compare different cut tobacco samples, and it reduced the burden of qualitative analysis as well as the subjectivity. The obtained results proved the combined approach powerful for the analysis of complex cut tobacco samples. The developed method can be used to compare the sameness and differences of cut tobacco from different sources and for quality control of cigarette production and materials.

Inhibition by N'-nitrosonornicotine of the catalytic activity of glutamate dehydrogenase in alpha-ketoglutarate amination.

The effect of N'-nitrosonornicotine (NNN), one of the tobacco-specific nitrosamines, on the catalytic activity of glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) in the alpha-ketoglutarate amination, using reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide as coenzyme, was studied by a chronoamperometric method. The maximum reaction rate of the enzyme-catalyzed reaction and the Michaelis-Menten constant, or the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant, were determined in the absence and presence of NNN. NNN remarkably inhibited the bio-catalysis activity of GLDH, and was a reversible competitive inhibitior with K(i), estimated as 199 micromol l(-1) at 25 degrees C and pH 8.0.