Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches in 3D Printing Technologies for Drug Delivery Challenges.

3-Dimensional printing (3DP) constitutes a raft of technologies, based on different physical mechanisms, that generate a 3-dimensional physical object from a digital model. Because of its rapid fabrication and precise geometry, 3DP has gained a prominent focus in biomedical and nanobiomaterials research. Despite advancements in targeted, controlled, and pulsatile drug delivery, the achievement of site-specific and disease-responsive drug release and stringent control over in vivo biodistribution, are still some of the important, challenging areas for pharmaceutical research and development and existing drug delivery techniques. Microelectronic industries are capable of generating nano-/microdrug delivery devices at high throughputs with a highly precise control over design. Successful miniaturizations of micro-pumps with multireservoir architectures for delivery of pharmaceuticals developed by micro-electromechanical systems technology were more acceptable than implantable devices. Inkjet printing technologies, which dispense a precise amount of polymer ink solutions, find applications in controlled drug delivery. Bioelectronic products have revolutionized drug delivery technologies. Designing nanoparticles by nanoimprint lithography showed a controlled drug release pattern, biodistribution, and in vivo transport. This review highlights the "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches of the most promising 3DP technologies and their broader applications in biomedical and therapeutic drug delivery, with critical assessment of its merits, demerits, and intellectual property rights challenges.

In vitro-in vivo studies of the quantitative effect of calcium, multivitamins and milk on single dose ciprofloxacin bioavailability.

Ciprofloxacin, commonly used in India as an anti-microbial for prolonged use in chronic and non-specific indications, may affect the bioavailability of the drug. The drug prescribed is commonly taken with multivitamins, calcium and milk. A simple and reliable analytical methodology obtaining a correlation with in vivo urinary excretion studies using UV and HPLC and in vitro dissolution studies (IVIVC) has shown a significant increase in elimination rate of ciprofloxacin co-administered with multivitamins, calcium and milk. Appreciable IVIVC results proved that dissolution studies could serve as an alternative to in vivo bioavailability and also support bio-waivers.

Evaluation of metformin hydrochloride in Wistar rats by FTIR-ATR spectroscopy: A convenient tool in the clinical study of diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: The IR absorption patterns (in cm(-1)) provide the basis to distinguish among the constituents and to separately quantify as well as qualify them and they possess many advantages such as very small sample volume requirement, good precision over entire physiological range, avoid of costly disposables, wealth of information from a single spectral measurement. The efficacy of anti-diabetic drug metformin hydrochloride as used to treat diabetic-induced Wistar rats and their sera were analyzed by FT-IR (ATR) in absorption mode. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present work was attempted in the study of normal and antidiabetic regimen-treated rat blood samples using FTIR spectroscopy by the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sampling technique. The biomolecule characteristics were measured as intensity ratio parameter (IRP) values and interpreted. RESULTS: To quantify the results three IRPs such as R1, R2 and R3 were calculated, respectively, for lipid, protein, and glucose. The glucose IRP value R3 showed, 0.3802, 0.3304, and 0.2847, respectively, for diseased, metformin-treated, and normal rats. CONCLUSION: The IRP values for glucose are compared to the glucose level obtained by using a glucometer. This study can be conveniently used in diagnostic procedures, patient compliance assessment, and efficacy evaluation of metformin hydrochlorides.

Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) vaccination among libyan health care personnel: A cross-sectional retrospective study.

CONTEXT: Vaccination rate among health-care personnel's (HCPs) are not promising notwithstanding the World Health Organization campaigns over three decades resulting in compromising patient safety. The H1N1 virus, which caused a world-wide pandemic earlier has now transformed into a seasonal flu virus. AIMS: The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of 2009-10 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) vaccination among Libyan HCPs in four hospitals of Al-Zawia, Libya. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire, which listed eight sections of parameters distributed among 310 HCPs to assess the vaccination rate and resulting adverse effects. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's χ(2)-test and Student's t-test where appropriate. RESULTS: The overall pandemic A (H1N1) vaccination among all HCPs was only 107 (39.9%) out of 268 respondents. The distribution of respondents based on physicians, other staff and sex were found significant (P < 0.05). The common barriers of H1N1 vaccination being lack of awareness fear of adverse effects, allergies and religious beliefs. The major adverse effect observed was erythema in 95.56% of physicians and 87.1% in other staff. About 2% of HCPs have reported arthralgia. No significant differences existed between the responses of general variables and adverse effects. The glycoprotein 120 and squalene were found responsible for the reported adverse effects. 37 (82.22%) vaccinated medical HCPs have advised their patients to get vaccinated. CONCLUSIONS: Due to recurrence of H1N1 influenza in recent times, vaccination campaigns should be promoted immediately to address the knowledge gap of HCPs for intervention by regulatory and health organizations in Libya. The health belief model could be applied to improve vaccination among HCPs.

Bioequivalance and pharmacokinetic study of febuxostat in human plasma by using LC-MS/MS with liquid liquid extraction method.

A bioequivalence study was proved of generic Febuxostat 80 mg tablets (T) in healthy volunteers.For this purpose, Authors developed a simple, sensitive, selective, rapid, rugged and reproducible liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantification of Febuxostat (FB) in human plasma using Febuxostat D7 (FBD7) as an internal standard (IS) was used. Chromatographic separation was performed on Ascentis Express C18 (50x4.6 mm, 3.5 µ) column. Mobile phase composed of 10 mM Ammonium formate: Acetonitrile (20:80 v/v), with 0.8 mL/min flow-rate. Drug and IS were extracted by Liquid- liquid extraction. FB and FBD7 were detected with proton adducts at m/z 317.1→261.1 and 324.2→262.1 in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) positive mode respectively. The method was validated with the correlation coefficients of (r(2)) ≥ 0.9850 over a linear concentration range of 1.00-8000.00 ng/mL. This method demonstrated intra and inter-day precision within 2.64 to 3.88 and 2.76 to 8.44% and accuracy within 97.33 to 99.05 and 100.30 to 103.19% for FB. This method is successfully applied in the Bioequivalence study of 9 human volunteers.

Bioanalytical method development and validation of milnacipran in rat plasma by LC-MS/MS detection and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A simple, sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed for the quantification of milnacipran (MC) in rat plasma by using the liquid-liquid extraction method. Milnacipran-d10 (MCD10) was used as an internal standard (IS). Chromatographic separation was achieved on Zorbax SB-CN (4.6 mm×75 mm, 3.5 µm) column with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 10 mM ammonium acetate (pH 4.0) and methanol in the ratio of 25:75(v/v), at a flow-rate of 0.7 mL/min. MC and MCD10 were detected with proton adducts at m/z 247.2→230.3 and m/z 257.2→240.4 in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) positive mode respectively. The method was validated over a linear concentration range of 1.00-400.00 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient (r2)≥0.9850. This method demonstrated intra- and inter-day precision within 5.40-10.85% and 4.40-8.29% and accuracy within 97.00-104.20% and 101.64-106.23%. MC was found to be stable throughout three freeze-thaw cycles, bench top and postoperative stability studies. This method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of rats through i.v. administration.

Method development and validation of almotriptan in human plasma by HPLC tandem mass spectrometry: application to pharmacokinetic study.

A simple, sensitive and selective method has been developed for quantification of Almotriptan (AL) in human plasma using Almotriptan-d(6) (ALD6) as an internal standard. Almotriptan and Almotriptan-d(6) were detected with proton adducts at m/z 336.1→201.1 and 342.2→207.2 in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) positive mode, respectively. The method was linear over a concentration range of 0.5-150.0 ng/mL. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for Almotriptan were 0.2 pg/mL and 0.5 ng/mL, respectively. Liquid-liquid extraction was used followed by MS/MS (ion spray). The method was shown to be precise with an average within-run and between-run variation of 0.68 to 2.78% and 0.57 to 0.86%, respectively. The average within-run and between-run accuracy of the method throughout its linear range was 98.94 to 102.64% and 99.43 to 101.44%, respectively. The mean recovery of drug and internal standard from human plasma was 92.12 ± 4.32% and 89.62 ± 6.32%. It can be applied for clinical and pharmacokinetic studies.

Bioanalytical method development and validation of memantine in human plasma by high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry: application to bioequivalence study.

A simple, sensitive, and rapid HPLC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for quantitative estimation of memantine in human plasma. Chromatography was performed on Zorbax SB-C(18) (4.6 × 75 mm, 3.5 µm) column. Memantine (ME) and internal standard Memantine-d6(MED6) were extracted by using liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by LC-ESI-MS/MS using multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 50.00-50000.00 pg/ml for ME in human plasma. This method demonstrated an intra- and interday precision within the range of 2.1-3.7 and 1.4-7.8%, respectively. Further intra- and interday accuracy was within the range of 95.6-99.8 and 95.7-99.1% correspondingly. The mean recovery of ME and MED6 was 86.07 ± 6.87 and 80.31 ± 5.70%, respectively. The described method was successfully employed in bioequivalence study of ME in Indian male healthy human volunteers under fasting conditions.

Bio-analytical method development and validation of Rasagiline by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry detection and its application to pharmacokinetic study.

The most suitable bio-analytical method based on liquid-liquid extraction has been developed and validated for quantification of Rasagiline in human plasma. Rasagiline-13C3 mesylate was used as an internal standard for Rasagiline. Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 (2.1 mm×50 mm, 3.5 µm) column provided chromatographic separation of analyte followed by detection with mass spectrometry. The method involved simple isocratic chromatographic condition and mass spectrometric detection in the positive ionization mode using an API-4000 system. The total run time was 3.0 min. The proposed method has been validated with the linear range of 5-12000 pg/mL for Rasagiline. The intra-run and inter-run precision values were within 1.3%-2.9% and 1.6%-2.2% respectively for Rasagiline. The overall recovery for Rasagiline and Rasagiline-13C3 mesylate analog was 96.9% and 96.7% respectively. This validated method was successfully applied to the bioequivalence and pharmacokinetic study of human volunteers under fasting condition.

Development and validation of amisulpride in human plasma by HPLC coupled with tandem mass spectrometry and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

In this study, authors developed a simple, sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for quantification of Amisulpride in human plasma using Amisulpride-d(5) as an internal standard (IS). Chromatographic separation was performed on Zorbax Bonus-RP C18, 4.6 × 75 mm, 3.5 µm column with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 0.2% formic acid:methanol (35:65 v/v), at a flow-rate of 0.5 mL/min. Amisulpride, Amisulpride-d(5) was detected at m/z 370.1→242.1 and 375.1→242.1. The drug and the IS were extracted by a liquid-liquid extraction method. The method was validated over a linear concentration range of 2.0-2500.0 ng/mL for Amisulpride with a correlation coefficient of (r(2)) ≥ 0.9982. This method demonstrated intra- and inter-day precision within 0.9 to 1.7 and 1.5 to 2.8 % and intra- and inter-day accuracy within 98.3 to 101.5 and 96.0 to 101.0 % for Amisulpride. Amisulpride was found to be stable at 3 freeze-thaw cycles, bench top and auto sampler stability studies. The developed method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study.

LC-ESI-MS/MS method for the quantification of entecavir in human plasma and its application to bioequivalence study.

Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) was used for a quantitative estimation of entecavir (EV) in human plasma using lamivudine (LM) as internal standard (IS). The method herein described is simple, sensitive, and specific. Chromatographic separation was performed on XBridge-C18, 4.6 mm × 50 mm, 5-µm column with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 10 mM ammonium hydrogen carbonate (pH 10.5):methanol (85:15 v/v), pumped at 0.3 ml/min. EV and LM were detected using proton adducts at m/z 278.1→152.1 and 230.2→112.0 in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) positive mode. Solid phase extraction method was employed in the extraction of EV and LM from the biological matrix. This method was validated over a linear concentration range of 50.0-20000.0 pg/ml with a correlation coefficient (r) ≥0.9983. Intra and inter-day precision of EV was found within the range of 1.2-4.2 for EV and 4.4-4.5 for LM. EV was stable throughout three freeze/thaw cycles, bench top and postoperative studies. This method was successfully used in the analysis of plasma samples following oral administration of EV (0.5 mg) in 26 healthy human volunteers.

Method development and validation for naratriptan determination in human plasma by HPLC with tandem mass spectrometry detection, and its application to bioequivalence study / Desenvolvimento de método e validação para determinação de naratriptan em plasma humano por HPLC com detecção de espectrometria de massa em tandem, e sua aplicação ao estudo de bioequivalência

The authors developed a simple, sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the quantification of naratriptan (NP) in human plasma using naratriptan-d3 (NPD3) as an internal standard (IS). Chromatographic separation was performed on a Zorbax SB-C18, 75 x 4.6 mm, 3.5 µm column with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 0.1 percent formic acid : acetonitrile (50:50 v/v), at a flow-rate of 0.6 mL/min. NP and NPD3 were detected with proton adducts at m/z 336.5→98.0 and 339.4→101.0 in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) positive mode, respectively. The liquid-liquid extraction method was used to extract the NP and NPD3. This method was validated over a linear concentration range of 0.1-25.0 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient of (r2) > 0.9998. The Intra-day and Interday precision was found to be 1.8 to 3.6 percent, and 2.3 to 2.6 percent, and accuracy to be 101.7- 104.2 percent and 101.8 to 102.9 percent, respectively. NP was found to be stable throughout freeze-thaw (three cycles), bench top and auto sampler stability studies. This method was successfully applied for the analysis of plasma samples following oral administration of NP (2.5 mg) in 31 healthy Indian male human volunteers under fasting conditions.

Os autores desenvolveram um método simples, sensível e específico de cromatografia líquida-espectrometria de massa-tandem (LC-MS/MS) para a quantificação de naratriptan (NP) em plasma humano empregando naratriptan-d3 (NPD3) como padrão interno de referência (IS). A separação cromatográfica foi realizada em coluna Zorbax SB-C18, 75 x 4,6 mm, 3,5 μm com fase móvel isocrática composta por 0,1 por cento ácido fórmico : acetronitrila (50:50 v/v) e taxa de fluxo de 0,6 mL/min. NP e NPD3 foram detectados com adutos de prótons a m/z 336.5→98.0 e 339.4→101.0 in em modo positivo do tipo monitoramento de reação selecionada (SRM), respectivamente. Extração líquido-líquido foi empregada para extrair NP e NPD3, sendo o método validado para uma faixa linear de concentração de 0,1-25,0 ng/mL resultando em coeficiente de correlação (r2) > 0,9998. A variação intra e interdia observada para precisão foi de 1,8 a 3,6 por cento e 2,3 a 2,6 por cento, respectivamente; para exatidão a variação foi de 101,7 a 104,2 por cento e 101,8 a 102,9 por cento, respectivamente. O NP se mostrou estável frente a processos de congelamento-descongelamento (3 ciclos), e estudos de estabilidade de bancada e amostragem automática. O método desenvolvido foi aplicado com sucesso para a análise de amostras de plasma após a administração oral de 2,5 mg de NP em 31 voluntários humanos, de nacionalidade indiana, sexo masculino, sob condições aceleradas.

Method development and validation of montelukast in human plasma by HPLC coupled with ESI-MS/MS: application to a bioequivalence study.

A simple, sensitive, and specific LC-ESIâMS/MS method for quantification of Montelukast (MO) in human plasma using Montelukast-d(6) (MOD6) as an internal standard (IS) is discussed here. Chromatographic separation was performed on YMC-pack pro C(18), 50 x 4.6 mm, S-3 Îm column with an isocratic mobile phase composed of 10mM ammonium formate (pH 4.0):acetonitrile (20:80 v/v), at a flow-rate of 0.8 mL min(â1). MO and MOD6 were detected with proton adducts at m/z 586.2â568.2 and 592.3â574.2 in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) positive mode respectively. MO and MOD6 were extracted using acetonitrile as precipitating agent. The method was validated over a linear concentration range of 1.0â800.0 ng mL(â1) with correlation coefficient (r(2)) â 0.9996. The intraday precision and accuracy were within 1.91â7.10 and 98.32â99.17. The inter-day precision and accuracy were within 3.42â4.41% and 98.14â99.27% for MO. Both analytes were found to be stable throughout three freeze-thawing cycles, bench top, and autosampler stability studies. This method was utilized successfully for the analysis of plasma samples following oral administration of MO (5 mg) in 31 healthy Indian male human volunteers under fasting conditions.

Quantitative estimation of riluzole in human plasma by LC-ESI-MS/MS and its application to a bioequivalence study.

A novel simple, sensitive, selective, and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for quantification of riluzole in human plasma. The chromatography was performed by using a Zorbax-SB-C18 (4.6 x 75 mm, 3.5 microm) column , isocratic mobile phase 0.1% formic acid/acetonitrile (10:90 v/v), and an isotope-labeled internal standard (IS), [(13)C,(15)N(2)]riluzole. The extraction of drug and internal standard was performed by liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by MS in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode using the respective [M+H](+) ions, m/z 235.0/165.9 for riluzole and m/z 238.1/169.0 for the IS. The calibration curve was linear over the concentration range 0.5-500.0 ng/ml for riluzole in human plasma. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was demonstrated at 0.5 ng/ml. The within-batch and between-batch precision were 0.6-2.3% and 1.4-5.7%, and accuracy was 97.1-101.1% and 98.8-101.2% for riluzole respectively. Drug and IS were eluted within 3.0 min. The validated method was successfully applied in a bioequivalence study of riluzole in human plasma.