The antiseptic Miramistin: a review of its comparative in vitro and clinical activity.

Miramistin is a topical antiseptic with broad antimicrobial action, including activity against biofilms and a clinical profile showing good tolerability. Miramistin was developed within a framework of the Soviet Union Cold War Space Program. It is available for clinical use in several prior Soviet bloc countries, but barely known outside of these countries and there is almost no mention of miramistin in the English literature. However, considering emerging antimicrobial resistance, the significant potential of miramistin justifies its re-evaluation for use in other geographical areas and conditions. The review consists of two parts: (i) a review of the existing literature on miramistin in English, Russian and Ukrainian languages; (ii) a summary of most commonly used antiseptics as comparators of miramistin. The oral LD50 was 1200 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg and 100 g/L in rats, mice and fish, respectively. Based on the results of the review, we suggest possible applications of miramistin and potential benefits over currently used agents. Miramistin offers a novel, low toxicity antiseptic with many potential clinical uses that need better study which could address some of the negative impact of antimicrobial, antiseptic and disinfectant resistance.

Feasibility studies. The use of NMR spectrometry as a possible substitute of or complement to several analytical tests in pharmacopoeia monographs.

NMR spectrometry has many analytical applications; for instance, the identification of known substances; the structure elucidation of unknown ones; the quantification of APIs, impurities, solvent and water; kinetic studies, stereochemistry determinations, and the analyses of complex mixtures as in metabonomics. NMR spectrometry has the potential to substitute or complement existing analyses that are performed on APIs. In this work, 4 different NMR analyses were done on 2 APIs: fluvastatin sodium and benzalkonium chloride with good results.

Simple HPLC determination of benzalkonium chloride in ophthalmic formulations containing antazoline and tetrahydrozoline.

A simple and rapid analytical procedure for routine quantification of n-C12H25 and n-C14H29 benzalkonium chloride (C-12 and C-14 BKC) homologs in ophthalmic formulations containing antazoline HCl and tetrahydrozoline HCl by high-performance liquid chromatography was developed and validated. The ophthalmic solution samples can be directly analyzed by reversed-phase on HiQ-Sil C18 column (4.6 mm x 150 mm, i.d., 5-microm particle size) with acetonitrile-sodium acetate buffer (pH 5.0; 0.2 M) (70:30, v/v) as mobile phase. UV Detection was carried out at 262 nm. The method was linear over the selected concentration and ranged from 0.03 to 0.10 mg/ml (r2 = 0.9999) and from 0.01 to 0.05 mg/ml (r2 = 0.9979) for C-12 and C-14 BKC homologs, respectively. The mean percent recoveries were 100.2 and 102.6 and the percent CV values were 1.3 and 3.5 for C-12 and C-14 BKC homologs, respectively. The results demonstrated the good linearity, accuracy, and precision. The method was applied to determine two commercial ophthalmic formulations, and the percent label amounts of total BKC contents were found to be 99.7 and 103.2.

Salting-out solvent extraction for the off-line preconcentration of benzalkonium chloride in capillary electrophoresis.

The use of salting-out effect for the off-line preconcentration of charged analytes in capillary electrophoresis is demonstrated for the first time. Using benzalkonium chloride (BAK) as model compound, a mixture of cationic surfactants consisting of even-numbered alkylbenzyl quaternary ammonium homologues (C8-C18), the addition of appropriate amounts of sodium chloride and acetonitrile in the sample solution (2 mL sample volume) was found to be capable of providing ca. 40-fold enhancement in detection sensitivity. In addition to affording a preconcentrating effect due to the extraction of BAK in the smaller volume water-miscible organic solvent phase (acetonitrile), the organic solvent also serves to improve the peak area and shape of the longer chain surfactants. Optimal experimental conditions, such as volume of acetonitrile and concentration of sodium chloride, for the preconcentration of BAK with good preconcentration factors and reproducibility were investigated. The usefulness of the present method was demonstrated for the improved determination of BAK present in commercially available industrial and pharmaceutical products.

A common disinfectant used in condom processing inhibits endonuclease digestion of sperm DNA.

DNA recovered from a condom found at a crime scene appeared undigestible with restriction enzymes, preventing characterization by Southern blot and polymorphic probe hybridization. Several chemical substances used in the processing and treatment of condoms were tested for inhibitory action of restriction enzymes. In particular dibenzalkonium chloride appeared to promote enzyme inhibition at very low concentrations. The effectiveness of treatments to restore cleavage of sample DNA in the presence of such contaminants is discussed.

Semiautomated microbiological method for the assay of quaternary ammonium compounds.

A semiautomated method has been developed for quantitatively assaying the activity of detergent disinfectants. Automation permitted a high level of reproducibility, which in turn allowed a meaningful comparison between the activities of some types of quaternary ammonium compounds.