Salivary 1,5-Anhydroglucitol and its Correlation with Postprandial Hyperglycemia: Development and Validation of a Novel Assay.

Background: Saliva has the potential to be used as a noninvasive sample for testing hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus. Serum 1,5-anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG) decreases with an increase in blood sugar >180 mg/dl. We hypothesized that salivary 1,5-AG can be used to identify blood sugar higher than 180 mg/dl using a novel biochemical method. Aim: This study aimed to develop a novel biochemical method for serum and salivary assessment of 1,5-AG and assess its correlation with postprandial blood sugar (PPBS) >180 mg/dl. Methodology: The study comprised 45 controls (healthy individuals) and 45 cases (type 2 diabetic patients with PPBS >180 mg/dl). Blood and salivary samples were collected according to the study protocol. A new method was developed for the quantification of 1,5-AG in serum and saliva using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results: The value of serum (mean -22.19 µg/ml and median -22.12 µg/ml) and salivary (mean -0.124 µg/ml and median -0.088 µg/ml) 1,5-AG was higher in healthy individuals compared to corresponding serum (mean -3.89 µg/ml and median -2.52 µg/ml) and salivary (mean -0.025 µg/ml and median - 0.025 µg/ml) levels in diabetics with PPBS >180 mg/dl. In diabetics, a significant negative correlation was noticed with PPBS levels and 1,5-AG levels in serum and saliva. Salivary 1,5-AG level <0.054 µg/ml had an 86.4% sensitivity and 87.2% specificity in predicting a blood sugar value >180 mg/dl. Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that the short-term glycemic marker 1,5-AG can be detected in saliva and can be useful as an adjunct marker in monitoring of glycemic status in diabetic patients.

Biodegradation of nicotine by a novel nicotine-degrading bacterium, Pseudomonas plecoglossicida TND35 and its new biotransformation intermediates.

Tobacco wastes that contain nicotine alkaloids are harmful to human health and the environment. In the investigation, a novel nicotine-biodegrading bacterium TND35 was isolated and identified as Pseudomonas plecoglossicida on the basis of phenotypic, biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA sequence homology. We have studied the nicotine biodegradation potential of strain TND35 by detecting the intermediate metabolites using an array of approaches such as HPLC, GC-MS, NMR and FT-IR. Biotransformation metabolites, N-methylmyosmine, 4-hydroxy-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (HPB) and other three new intermediate metabolites namely, 3,5-bis (1-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl) pyridine, 2,3-dihydro-1-methyl-5-(pyridin-3-yl)-1H-pyrrol-2-ol and 5-(pyridin-3-yl)-1H-pyrrol-2(3H)-one have been identified. Interestingly, these intermediate metabolites suggest that the strain TND35 employs a novel nicotine biodegradation pathway, which is different from the reported pathways of Aspergillus oryzae 112822, Arthrobacter nicotinovorans pAO1, Agrobacterium tumefaciens S33 and other species of Pseudomonas. The metabolite, HPB reported in this study can also be used as biochemical marker for tobacco related cancer studies.

Effect of the excipient concentration on the pharmacokinetics of PM181104, a novel antimicrobial thiazolyl cyclic peptide antibiotic, following intravenous administration to mice.

Thiazolyl cyclic peptide antibiotics are known for their poor aqueous solubility and unfavorable pharmacokinetics (PK) and hence pose challenging tasks in developing these antibiotics as clinical candidates. In the current paper, we report a possible way to address these challenges with exemplification of our antibiotic PM181104. The approach was to prepare formulations with known excipients, Polysorbate 80 (Tween 80, T-80) and PEG 400 through their varied stiochiometric combination in appropriate ratio to achieve acceptable osmolarity, pH and particle size of the formulation. Two different sets of formulations were prepared with two distinct average particle diameters ranging from 32.8 to 465.4 nm. First, semi-transparent solutions with a particle size of >100 nm were achieved by keeping concentration of PEG 400 constant at 8% (w/v) and decreasing the amounts of T-80. Second, clear colorless solutions with a particle size of <100 nm were achieved by keeping concentration of T-80 constant at 8% (w/v) and decreasing the amounts of PEG 400. In PK studies, intravenous administration of formulation with particle size <100 nm to mice resulted in a two-fold increase in area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUClast) and concentration at time zero (C 0), there by facilitating the selection of suitable formulation for further efficacy studies.

Triple-quantum magic angle spinning (27)Al NMR of aluminum hydroxides.

We show that (27)Al triple-quantum magic angle spinning (3Q-MAS) experiments alleviate the second-order quadrupolar broadening to reveal the structure-building units of nonequivalent aluminum octahedra in the most extensively studied aluminum hydroxides, namely, gibbsite, bayerite, and boehmite. Further, aided by ab initio calculations of the electric field gradient tensors, the 3Q-MAS/MAS results are shown to lead to the assignment of (27)Al isotropic resonances to the aluminum positions in their X-ray-determined structures. The present work paves the way for future studies on various structurally transformed materials derived from these basic aluminum hydroxides.