Tunneling Nanotubes and Gap Junctions-Their Role in Long-Range Intercellular Communication during Development, Health, and Disease Conditions.

Cell-to-cell communication is essential for the organization, coordination, and development of cellular networks and multi-cellular systems. Intercellular communication is mediated by soluble factors (including growth factors, neurotransmitters, and cytokines/chemokines), gap junctions, exosomes and recently described tunneling nanotubes (TNTs). It is unknown whether a combination of these communication mechanisms such as TNTs and gap junctions may be important, but further research is required. TNTs are long cytoplasmic bridges that enable long-range, directed communication between connected cells. The proposed functions of TNTs are diverse and not well understood but have been shown to include the cell-to-cell transfer of vesicles, organelles, electrical stimuli and small molecules. However, the exact role of TNTs and gap junctions for intercellular communication and their impact on disease is still uncertain and thus, the subject of much debate. The combined data from numerous laboratories indicate that some TNT mediate a long-range gap junctional communication to coordinate metabolism and signaling, in relation to infectious, genetic, metabolic, cancer, and age-related diseases. This review aims to describe the current knowledge, challenges and future perspectives to characterize and explore this new intercellular communication system and to design TNT-based therapeutic strategies.

Chiral HPLC method for chiral purity determination of paroxetine drug substance.

This article describes a chiral HPLC method for (+) trans isomer of paroxetine in a paroxetine drug substance. The method development was performed to establish a suitable HPLC system in order to separate both enantiomers. It was found that a system based on a Chiralpak AD column was suitable for the analysis. Proper column maintenance and the optimized eluent composition allowed good reproducibility and sensitivity for the method. The method was also checked on a number of different columns using different HPLC equipment and gave both reproducible chromatography and reproducible quantitative results.

Removal of the fermentation by-product succinyl L-tyrosine from the beta-lactamase inhibitor clavulanic acid using a molecularly imprinted polymer.

Clavulanic acid is a beta-lactamase inhibitor used in therapeutic combinations with the penicillin-type antibiotics. During the fermentation leading to clavulanic acid, a succinyl L-tyrosine by-product is unavoidably formed. Occasionally, the amount of this by-product is found to be as high as 2% of the product even after standard purification operations. To further remove this impurity, we prepared a highly specific adsorbent for succinyl L-tyrosine with the molecular imprinting technique. This was performed by simultaneously using vinylbenzyl trimethylammonium chloride and methacrylic acid as the functional monomers. The imprinted polymer selectively bound succinyl L-tyrosine, and could be successfully used to remove this impurity at concentrations of less than 2% in the presence of clavulanic acid.

Chiral separation of basic drugs by capillary electrophoresis with carboxymethylcyclodextrins.

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) with carboxymethylated beta- or gamma-cyclodextrins was used to achieve the rapid enantiomeric separation of a set of basic drugs. The enantiomers of 12 chiral amino-containing pharmaceutical compounds belonging to various therapeutic categories were analyzed by CE using an uncoated 60 cm x 75 microm I.D. silica capillary. Several experimental parameters such as the nature, concentration and pH of the buffer, nature and concentration of the anionic cyclodextrin and temperature were studied in order to optimize the enantiomeric separation. The variation of the solute partition coefficient for the chiral selector, the enantioselectivity and resolution factors are used to assess the quality of the chiral separation. It is shown that the solute affinity for the chiral selector is not related to its enantioresolution factor. None of the two cyclodextrin selectors used was able to separate the whole set of basic drugs.