[A review of 3D printing via fused deposition modeling in pharmaceutics].

Three dimensional printing (3D printing) has been known as additive manufacturing technique based on digitally-controlled deposition of materials. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of techniques commonly used in 3D printing, in which materials are soften or melt by heat to create objects during printing. This paper is prepared to review the research and application of 3D printing via FDM in the pharmaceutical sciences, including its advantages and limitations.

Synergistic Effect and Mechanism of Cineole and Terpineol on In-vitro Transdermal Delivery of Huperzine A from Microemulsions.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence and the mechanisms of cineole and terpineol on the in-vitro transdermal delivery of huperzine A from microemulsions, and their potential synergistic effect on the permeation enhancement. The transdermal delivery of huperzine A from microemulsions with different concentrations of cineole and terpineol through the rat abdominal skin was determined by Franz-type diffusion cells. The partition coefficient of huperzine A between the full thickness skin and microemulsion was determined. Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) was carried out to analyze the effects of cineole and terpineol on the biophysical properties of the stratum corneum (SC) and the mechanisms of permeation enhancement. These results indicated that cineole and terpineol could synergistically increase the transdermal delivery of huperzine A from microemulsions through increasing the partition and diffusion coefficients of huperzine A. ATR-FTIR studies further validated the synergistic effect and revealed that the enhancing mechanisms were due to increasing the disorderliness and fluidity of SC lipid alkyl chains, disrupting the structure of keratin in SC, and extracting SC lipids. In conclusion, cineole and terpineol, acting synergistically to enhance the transdermal delivery of huperzine A from microemulsions, might provide an alternative permeation enhancer combination for the transdermal delivery of huperzine A.

Investigation on pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution and excretion of a novel anticancer platinum compound by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after intravenous administration to rats.

SM54111 [cis-3, 5-diisopropylsalylic cyclohexanodiaminoplatinum (II), Saliplatin] is a novel platinum compound with encouraging anticancer effect. In order to get more useful information in multiple species for the security evaluation, dosage design, and drug delivery design, its pharmacokinetic behaviors in rats after intravenous administration were investigated in this study. Based on its pharmacokinetics in plasma, the distribution of SM54111 in heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, brain, adipose, testicle, or ovaries of rats sampled at 0.5 h, 1 h, and 3 h after intravenous administration were determined utilizing inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Its amounts in urine and feces were determined at 8 sampling times till 96 h as well. It was proved that SM54111 fitted open two-compartment model in rats, with wide distribution in tissues and slow excretion. Its reasonable pharmacokinetic properties in rats make this novel platinum compound worthy of further research and development.

Simultaneous quantification of 11 pivotal metabolites in neural tube defects by HPLC-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

One-carbon metabolism that involves folate metabolism and homocysteine metabolism plays a powerful role in embryonic development. Any impairment to this metabolism during the neurulation process would trigger the occurrence of neural tube defects (NTDs). The great importance of one-carbon metabolism necessitates the establishment of methodology to determine the relative compounds involved in the metabolic cycles. We have developed a sensitive method for measurement of 11 pivotal compounds by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) in sera of pregnant women. Use of an aqueous chromatography column increased retention time and separation of the polar compounds in the system, resulting in fewer co-elution and interference from the other compounds that can lead to ion suppression. Calibration curves suitable for the analysis of maternal serum were linear (r(2)>0.997) with limits of detection from 0.05 to 1ng/mL. Intra-day coefficients of variation (CVs) and inter-day CVs were both lower than 11%. With the developed method, 96 serum samples including 46 cases and 50 controls were analyzed. The established method provided a reliable method for quantifying most of the compounds involved in the one-carbon metabolism simultaneously, thus made it possible to elucidate NTDs with multiple factors instead of one single and provided a solid foundation for the diagnosis and prevention of NTDs as well as some other one-carbon metabolism related diseases.

[Study on determination of entrapment efficiency of sinomenine liposomes].

OBJECTIVE: To establish an HPLC method for the determination of entrapment efficiency of sinomenine liposomes. METHOD: The liposomes and dissociated drugs were separated by sephadex filtration, mini-column centrifugation and dialysis. The methodology study and the optimization of determining condition were carried out at the same time. RESULT: Sephadex filtration could effectively separate the sinomenine liposomes from dissociated sinomenine. The column recovery was 98.8%, the average entrapment efficiency of three tests was64.9%, RSD 2.67%. CONCLUSION: The method was simple, exact, and had a good reappearance. It can be used to examine the entrapment efficiency of sinomenine liposomes.