Volume 33, Issue 2

Diabetes is a health condition associated with the elevated levels of glucose in the bloodstream and affects 366 million people worldwide. Type II diabetes is often treated with sulfonylurea drugs, which are known to bind tightly in the blood to the transport protein human serum albumin (HSA). One consequence of the elevated levels of glucose in diabetes is the nonenzymatic glycation of proteins such as HSA. Several areas of HSA are now known to be affected by glycation-related modifications, which may in turn affect the binding of sulfonylurea drugs and other solutes to this protein. This review discusses some recent studies that have examined these changes in drug-protein binding by employing high-performance affinity chromatography (HPAC). A description of the theoretical and experimental techniques that were used in these studies is given. The information on drug interactions with glycated HSA, as obtained through this method, is also summarized. In addition, the potential advantages of this approach in the areas of biointeraction analysis and personalized medicine are considered.

Monitoring the molecular recognition, binding, and disassociation between probe and target is important in medical diagnostics and drug screening, because such a wealth of information can be used to identify the pathogenic species and new therapeutic candidates. Nanoelectronic biosensors based on silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (SiNW-FETs) have recently attracted tremendous attention as a promising tool in the investigation of biomolecular interactions due to their capability of ultrasensitive, selective, real-time, and label-free detection. Herein, we summarize the recent advances in label-free analysis of molecule-molecule interactions using SiNW-FETs, with a discussion and emphasis on small molecule-biomolecule interaction, biomolecule-biomolecule interactions (including carbohydrate-protein interaction, protein-protein or antigen-antibody binding, and nucleic acid-nucleic acid hybridization), and protein-virus interaction. Such molecular recognitions offer a basis of biosensing and the dynamics assay of biomolecular association or dissociation. Compared to the conventional technologies, SiNW-FETs hold great promise to monitor molecule-molecule interactions with higher sensitivity and selectivity. Finally, several prospects concerning the future development of SiNW-FET biosensor are discussed.

Chemical vapor generation is widely used as an efficient sample-introduction technique for atomic spectrometry. Plasma-induced vapor generation (plasma-CVG), where the dissolved ions are converted to volatile species by the plasma-induced chemical process, is an emerging green vapor generation technique. The most distinguished characteristic of plasma-CVG is that it avoids the use of chemical reduction/oxidation reagents. Comparing with conventional vapor generation method, plasma-CVG offers several other advantages: sensitive and simple in operation, high vapor generation efficiency, and rapid reaction kinetic speed. Its analytical applications have been demonstrated in analysis of Hg, Cd, Se, Zn, As, Sb, Te, Os, and I. This review summarizes the developments of plasma-CVG, including solution cathode glow discharge plasma and dielectric barrier discharge plasma, for several analytes determination. We also discuss the possible mechanism and future trends in plasma-CVG in this review.

Impurity is not a much-liked word by pharmaceutical and industry people, because they are concerned about quality. Here we discuss various impurities that might be present in API formulations. To fulfill our purpose we have compiled a variety of regulatory authorities’ guidelines (i.e., ICH, WHO, and pharmacopoeias), which serve in endlessly regulating the impurities by various means. As the impurity present in a drug can affect its quality and thus its efficiency, it is therefore crucial to know about impurities. The current article reveals the different terms, regulatory control, and basic techniques (e.g., HPLC, LC-MS, TLC) that will help novices to understand, identify, and quantitatively estimate impurities and that have the advantage of profiling. This article primarily focuses on identification and control of various impurities (i.e., organic, inorganic, and genotoxic). For any of the substances, quality is the prime objective. Because impurities can alter quality, understanding the various impurities will help in producing quality products.

This review presents the state-of-the-art of interfacing sample preparation and detector systems with commercially available capillary electrophoresis (CE) equipment. The analytical potential of combined sample preparation units into commercially available CE equipment under integrated or coupling approaches, allowing at-line, on-line, and in-line arrangements to automate sample preparation is discussed. Some examples of the analytical applications are reported when using different sample treatment procedures, such as cleanup and preconcentration, extraction/filtering, gas extraction/diffusion, extraction with membrane and hollow fiber, and dialysis and extraction with supported liquid membrane. CE interfaced detectors are also discussed by distinguishing between commercially available CE equipment and those not commercially available and focusing on the latter. Interfaced CE approaches clearly expand the field of application of the CE and connect to the real world in routine analytical laboratories, avoiding the drawbacks and limitations of electrophoretic separations.