The possibility of determining the Michaelis constant of the irreversible deamination of adenosine to inosine by adenosine deaminase, using capillary electrophoresis, was investigated. This paper describes the use of electrophoretically mediated microanalysis (EMMA) as the technique for carrying out the assay. Initial reaction velocities of the enzymatic reaction were estimated from the peak area of inosine, and the Michaelis constant was calculated according to the Lineweaver-Burk equation. The result (Km = 5.3 x 10(-5) M +/- 8 x 10(-6) M) was consistent with previously reported values. Using the present method, a total amount of as few as 1.2 fmole of enzyme and 9.2 ng of substrate were injected in the capillary for the construction of a Michaelis Menten curve (seven concentrations of substrate, each concentration analyzed in triplicate), which is far smaller than the quantities required in conventional methods.

SummaryTetracycline was separated from its main impurities 4-epitetracycline, anhydrotetracycline, 4-epianhydrotetracycline, chlortetracycline, and demethyltetracycline by capillary electrophoresis. Systematic method development was performed in which following parameters were consecutively optimized: type and pH of the buffer, buffer concentration, type and concentration of organic modifier, voltage and temperature. Qualitative and quantitative aspects of the method are compared with liquid chromatography.

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CEC was used to develop a method for the enantiomeric excess determination of levetiracetam, an antiepileptic drug. Different types of calibration curve were evaluated for use in the range between 0.01 and 1 mg/mL when aniracetam was used as an internal standard. The method gave comparable results when only the areas of the impurity were used in the calibration curve. The predicted detection and quantification limits from the S/N were 1.1 and 3.6 microg/mL, respectively. However, experimental results showed that LOD and LOQ were underestimated. Repeatability of injection was demonstrated by the RSD values obtained for retention time, resolution, ratios of the areas impurity/internal standard, and areas of impurity and internal standard individually, which were below or equal to 9.30%. The between-days variability experiments indicated that it is better to make a calibration curve daily. The finally selected calibration curves were used to test the accuracy of the developed method on bulk samples and Keppra tablets containing 250 mg levetiracetam. Both selected calibration curves performed similarly. The one using the internal standard information gave overall recoveries between 88 and 118%, while the one using areas gave results between 84 and 118%.

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The long-term use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs) is associated with multiple side effects, such as increased sedation, hangover or an elevated risk of dependency and abuse. Unfortunately, the long-term use of BZRAs is reaching worrying intake rates, and therefore, the need for action is high. It was demonstrated already that the overall willingness of patients for deprescription increased when a slow dose reduction scheme with the possibility for dose increase, if needed, is employed. The current study aims to develop a flexible dosing platform of zolpidem hemitartrate (ZHT) to facilitate such withdrawal therapy. As this is the first report on the extrusion and 3D printing of ZHT, its thermal behaviour and sensitivity towards photolytic degradation was characterised. It was shown that ZHT possesses multiple polymorphs and was especially prone to oxidative photolysis. Next, a variety of immediate release polymers (Eudragit EPO, Kollidon VA64, Kollidon 12PF and Soluplus) were blended and extruded with Polyox WSR N10 to investigate their feedability and printability by mechanical and rheological analysis. The addition of PEO was shown to enable printing of these brittle pharmaceutical polymers, although the processing temperature was deemed critical to avoid surface defects on the resulting filaments. An EPO(70)PEO(30) system was selected based on its suitable mechanical properties and low hygroscopicity favoring ZHT stability. The matrix was blended with 1% or 10% API. The effect of certain printing parameters (caplet size, nozzle diameter, % overlap) on dissolution behaviour and caplet weight/dimensions/quality was assessed. A flexible dosing platform capable of delivering <1 mg and up to 10 mg of ZHT was created. Either caplet modification (incorporation of channels) or disintegrant addition (Primojel, Explotab, Ac-Di-Sol, Primellose and Polyplasdone-XL) failed to achieve an immediate release profile. This study provides the first report of a 3D-printed flexible dosing platform containing ZHT to aid in withdrawal therapy.