A Randomized Prospective Survey Targeting Knowledge, Barriers, Facilitators and Readiness to Participation in Dementia Research.

BACKGROUND: While the U.S. National Institute on Aging has developed a strategy for recruitment of minority populations in dementia research, including increasing awareness and engagement, minority populations remain under-represented, and the evidence-base is limited. We tested a conceptually driven communication approach targeting barriers and facilitators to research participation vs. standard education. METHODS: In this 2-phase project, input from the minority advisory board of the Cleveland Alzheimer's Disease Research Center informed development of 2 brief health communication videos which differentially focused on research barriers and facilitators (POWER) versus an education control (Phase 1). In Phase 2, a randomized prospective survey compared POWER vs. an active comparator control on pre/post video change in dementia knowledge, cumulative barriers, and facilitators to dementia research, and change in research readiness measured by the Transtheoretical behavior change model. Changes in outcomes were evaluated using two group by two time points repeated measure analysis of variance (RMANOVA) controlling for age, gender, race, and education. RESULTS: The pre-video sample (n=242) had mean age of 57.6 (SD17.2) years, mostly female (n=181, 74.8%), 42.6% non-white. The analyzable sample who completed both pre and post assessments comprised n=102 in the POWER and n=105 in the control group. Non-white participants made up 41.1% of the analyzable POWER (n=51) and 44.1% (n= 52) of controls. Adjusted for age, gender, race and education, controls had a greater increase in dementia knowledge (p=0.004). There was a significant reduction in barriers for POWER (p=.044) vs. control. There were no differences in research facilitators and research readiness between POWER vs. control. Among African Americans (n=59, 28.5% of the analyzable sample) there was a trend for improved dementia knowledge (p=.059) favoring control and in research readiness (p=.051), favoring POWER. CONCLUSIONS: Targeting barriers and attitudes towards research could inform development of approaches with potential to improve dementia research participation across diverse communities.

Development of high performance liquid chromatography methods with charged aerosol detection for the determination of lincomycin, spectinomycin and its impurities in pharmaceutical products.

Novel and simple liquid chromatography methods with charged aerosol detection (LC-CAD) for simultaneous quantitation of lincomycin and spectinomycin and its related substances have been developed and tested. This type of analysis is complicated due to the different chromatographic behavior of these two agents and the lack of chromophores in spectinomycin complex. CAD seems to be a promising alternative to overcome these difficulties. It shows a consistent inter-analyte response, independent of chemical structure of an analyte. It also enables the direct quantification of related substances for which no reference standards were available, with good accuracy and precision. Chromatographic separations were achieved using a C18 Hypersil(®) Gold column, with mobile phases consisting of water, acetonitrile and trifluoroacetic acid. All impurities were identified using time-of-flight mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization. The developed methods have been successfully used in the routine quality control analysis of pharmaceutical preparations.

In vivo and in silico pharmacological studies on some new 4-(1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)benzene-1,3-diol analogues.

4-(1,3,4-Thiadiazol-2-yl)benzene-1,3-diols 5-substituted in the heterocyclic ring were obtained by the reaction of the commercially available hydrazides or thiosemicarbazides with sulfinylbis[(2,4-dihydroxyphenyl)methanethione]. The synthesized compounds were screened for their influence on CNS in the vivo model. Computer aided prediction tools were used for the evaluation of toxicological properties. Additionally, based on the Lipinski filters, the drug-likeness of compounds was assessed. They revealed that the compounds possess properties which can suggest favorable pharmacokinetics in the body after oral admission.

X-ray powder diffractometry and liquid chromatography studies of sibutramine and its analogues content in herbal dietary supplements.

The contemporary societies of the developed countries are prone to use traditional far-east medicines as remedies for all diseases. Some of them, such as obesity, might be classified as civilization diseases. Combating the problem, people try not only several miraculous diets but also herbal infusions (teas) and variety of "herbal" preparations. All these believing that such treatment is healthy and harmless as far as it is "natural". Leaving out of the way the question if herbal medicines can be taken safely without doctors' control the query arises if the common preparations are strictly natural and herbal. Here we report examples of quality studies of such medicines using both X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and liquid chromatography (LC) with various types of detection: ultraviolet (UV), coulometric electrode array (CEAD) and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS). Especially the XRPD assisted with an optical microscopy seems to be useful as a fast screening method of general sample composition of such preparations. First of all it can discriminate between capsules containing pure herbal materials and those with some chemical.