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Background and Purpose: Treatment with A1R/A3R (adenosine A1 and A3 receptor) agonists in rodent models of acute ischemic stroke results in significantly reduced lesion volume, indicating activation of adenosine A1R or A3R is cerebroprotective. However, dosing and timing required for cerebroprotection has yet to be established, and whether adenosine A1R/A3R activation will lead to cerebroprotection in a gyrencephalic species has yet to be determined. Methods: The current study used clinical study intervention timelines in a nonhuman primate model of transient, 4-hour middle cerebral artery occlusion to investigate a potential cerebroprotective effect of the dual adenosine A1R/A3R agonist AST-004. Bolus and then 22 hours intravenous infusion of AST-004 was initiated 2 hours after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Primary outcome measures included lesion volume, lesion growth kinetics, penumbra volume as well as initial pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationships measured up to 5 days after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Secondary outcome measures included physiological parameters and neurological function. Results: Administration of AST-004 resulted in rapid and statistically significant decreases in lesion growth rate and total lesion volume. In addition, penumbra volume decline over time was significantly less under AST-004 treatment compared with vehicle treatment. These changes correlated with unbound AST-004 concentrations in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid as well as estimated brain A1R and A3R occupancy. No relevant changes in physiological parameters were observed during AST-004 treatment. Conclusions: These findings suggest that administration of AST-004 and combined A1R/A3R agonism in the brain are efficacious pharmacological interventions in acute ischemic stroke and warrant further clinical evaluation.

The assessment of provenance of heparin is becoming a major concern for the pharmaceutical industry and its regulatory bodies. Batch-specific [carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), oxygen (δ18O), sulfur (δ34S), and hydrogen (δD)] stable-isotopic compositions of five different animal-derived heparins were performed. Measurements readily allowed their differentiation into groups and/or subgroups based on their isotopic provenance. Principle component analysis showed that a bivariate plot of δ13C and δ18O is the best single, bivariate plot that results in the maximum discrimination ability when only two stable isotopes are used to describe the variation in the data set. Stable-isotopic analyses revealed that (i) stable-isotope measurements on these highly-sulfated polysaccharide (MW ~15 kDa) natural products (“biologics”) were feasible; (ii) in bivariate plots, the δ13C versus δ18O plot reveals a well-defined relationship for source differentiation of hogs raised in the US from hogs raised in Europe and China; (iii) the δD versus δ18O plot revealed the most well-defined relationship for source differentiation based on the hydrologic-environmental isotopes of water (D/H and 18O/16O), and (iv) the δ15N versus δ18O and δ34S versus δ18O relationships are both very similar, possibly reflecting the food sources used by the different heparin producers.

Tokyo 158, JapanWith the theoretically predicted relative standard deviation (RSD) of measurements as a criterion, the ultra-violet detection wavelengths are optimized in a capillary electrophoresis system equipped with a diode-array, when analyte signals are baseline-separated in the time-direction and the measurements are the integration results in the time and wavelength directions. Some cold drugs and additives are taken as examples. The auto-correlation of an instrumental baseline at a diode (time-correlation) and the cross-correlation of measurements between different diodes (wavelengthcorrelation) are both taken into account for a better prediction of RSD. A simple method for estimating the wavelengthcorrelation is presented with a theoretical proof. This paper also shows that the measurement precision is governed to a large extent by the zero level setting of the time integration which accumulates the instrumental output relative to the zero level. The optimum (minimum RSD) is selected from among the wavelengths (190 -300 nm) and possible zero level settings. The validity of the RSD prediction is statistically verified.