Isolation and structural characterization of novel photolytic degradation impurities of Deflazacort using Q-TOF, 2D-NMR and FTIR.

Forced Degradation of Deflazacort drug substance in ultraviolet light condition resulted into a number of significant degradation products. Two of these degradation products were found to be unknown during the study and marked as DD-I and DD-II. Thus, the objective of this work is to investigate and identify these two novel degradation products of DFZ. The isolation method for these new degradation products were developed using a new reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). DD-I and DD-II, eluting at 0.53 and 1.57 relative retention times with respect to Deflazacort (DFZ) peak respectively, were isolated from reaction mass using preparative HPLC and their structures were elucidated using high resolution MS, multidimensional NMR and FTIR spectroscopic techniques. To best of our knowledge, these two degradation products are novel impurities which are not discussed in any form of publication yet.

Guggulsterone and Its Role in Chronic Diseases.

Guggulsterone is a plant sterol derived from gum resin of Commiphora wightii. The gum resin from guggul plants has been used for thousand years in Ayurveda to treat various disorders, including internal tumors, obesity, liver disorders, malignant sores and ulcers, urinary complaints, intestinal worms, leucoderma, sinuses, edema, and sudden paralytic seizures. Guggulsterone has been identified a bioactive components of this gum resin. This plant steroid has been reported to work as an antagonist of certain nuclear receptors, especially farnesoid X receptor, which regulates bile acids and cholesterol metabolism. Guggulsterone also mediates gene expression through the regulation of transcription factors, including nuclear factor-kappa B and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, which plays important roles in the development of inflammation and tumorigenesis. Guggulsterone has been shown to downregulate the expression of proteins involved in anti-apoptotic, cell survival, cell proliferation, angiogenic, metastatic, and chemoresistant activities in tumor cells. This review aimed to clarify the cell signal pathways targeted by guggulsterone and the bioactivities of guggulsterone in animal models and humans.

Regulation of P-glycoprotein efflux activity by Z-guggulsterone of Commiphora mukul at the blood-brain barrier.

The present study was to investigate whether Z-guggulsterone had the regulatory effect on the activity and expression of P-glycoprotein in rat brain microvessel endothelial cells (rBMECs) and in rat brain. Inorganic phosphate liberation assay, high performance liquid chromatography, and western blot analysis were performed to assess the P-glycoprotein ATPase activity, the accumulation of NaF and rhodamine 123, and P-glycoprotein and MRP1 expression. The results showed that Z-guggulsterone (0-100 µM) significantly enhanced basal P-glycoprotein ATPase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. Tetrandrine (0.1, 0.3, 1 µM) or cyclosporine A (0.1, 0.3, 1 µM) had non-competitively inhibitory manner on Z-guggulsterone-stimulated P-glycoprotein ATPase activity, suggesting that Z-guggulsterone might have unique binding site or regulating site on P-glycoprotein. However, Z-guggulsterone (30, 100 µM) had almost no influence on MRP1 expression in rBMECs. Further results revealed that Z-guggulsterone (50mg/kg) significantly increased the accumulation of rhodamine 123 by down-regulating P-glycoprotein expression in rat brain, as compared with control (P<0.05). Our studies suggested that Z-guggulsterone potentially inhibited the activity and expression of P-glycoprotein in rBMECs and in rat brain.

Guggulsterone for Chemoprevention of Cancer.

Guggulsterone [4, 17(20)-pregnadiene-3, 16-dione] is a plant sterol derived from the gum resin of the tree Commiphora wightii. The gum resin of the guggul tree has been used in traditional medicine for centuries to treat obesity, liver disorders, internal tumors, malignant sores, ulcers, urinary complaints, intestinal worms, leucoderma, sinus, edema and sudden paralytic seizures. Guggulsterone has been shown to modulate the nuclear receptors, farnesoid X receptor, pregnane X receptor, CYP 2b10 gene expression, and the bile salt export pump for cholesterol elimination. Recent research indicates that the active components of gum guggul, E- and Zguggulsterone have the potential to both prevent and treat cancers. Guggulsterone inhibits the growth of a wide variety of tumor cells and induces apoptosis through down regulation of antiapoptotic gene products (IAP1, xIAP, Bfl-1/A1, Bcl-2, cFLIP, and survivin), modulation of cell cycle proteins (cyclin D1 and c-Myc), activation of caspases, inhibition of Akt, and activation of JNK. Guggulsterone modulates the expression of gene products involved in metastasis (MMP-9, COX-2, and VEGF) of tumor cells. Guggulsterone mediates gene expression through the modulation of several transcription factors, including NF-κB, STAT3, C/EBPα, androgen receptor, and glucocorticoid receptors. This review describes the anti-cancer properties, molecular targets, and the apoptotic effects of guggulsterone.

Restricted-access nanoparticles for magnetic solid-phase extraction of steroid hormones from environmental and biological samples.

Restricted-access materials based on non-ionic surfactant-coated dodecyl-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles were prepared and applied to extract steroid hormones from environmental and biological samples. The magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitation, and were functionalized with dodecyltriethoxysilane, giving dodecyl-grafted magnetic nanoparticles (C12-Fe3O4). They were further modified with different non-ionic surfactants by self-assembly adsorption. Several types of non-ionic surfactants, Tween-20, 40, 60 and 85, and Span-40, 60 and 80, were investigated as the coatings. Tween surfactants coated C12-Fe3O4, named as TW-20 (40, 60, 85)-C12, exhibited good dispersibility in aqueous solution, which was a preferred character in extraction; besides, TW-20-C12 and TW-40-C12 showed good anti-interference ability and satisfactory reproducibility when they were used as magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) sorbents. The factors that may influence the extraction, including the amount of magnetic nanoparticles, extraction and desorption time, the amount of salt addition, the type and volume of desorption solvent, the volume of methanol addition and pH of sample solution, were investigated in detail. High performance liquid chromatography-UV detection was employed for analysis of target analytes (steroid hormone compounds). The developed method was successfully used for the determination of the target analytes in environmental and urine samples. Both tested materials afforded good recovery, satisfactory reproducibility and low limits of detection for environmental samples, which indicates that the materials possessed anti-interference ability. However, compared to TW-40-C12, TW-20-C12 nanoparticles provided better recovery in relatively complex biological samples, which may indicate that the latter one is more appreciated in complex samples.

Effective separation and analysis of E- and Z-guggulsterones in Commiphora mukul resin, guggulipid and their pharmaceutical product by high performance thin-layer chromatography-densitometric method.

A high performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method for the simultaneous determination of the hypolipidemic agents, E- and Z-isomers of guggulsterone in Commiphora mukul resin, guggulipid (ethyl acetate extract of resin), and its pharmaceutical formulation, was developed. The developed system was efficient enough to separate both isomers from their conger, 17,20-dihydroguggulsterone. HPTLC glass plates, pre-coated with silica gel 60F-254, were used as a stationary phase. The mobile phase consisted of toluene:acetone (9.3:0.7, v/v) which gave well resolved spots for E- and Z-guggulsterones (R(f): 0.52±0.01, and 0.67±0.01, respectively) following double development of chromatoplate with the same mobile phase under unsaturated conditions. The analyte stability towards the developed chromatographic procedure was also investigated by two-dimensional (2D) HPTLC analysis. 17,20-Dihydroguggulsterone (3) was identified by the electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-QTOF-MS/MS) analysis.

Effects of guggulsterone isolated from Commiphora mukul in high fat diet induced diabetic rats.

Sedentary lifestyle, consumption of energy-rich diet, obesity and longer lifespan are some of the major reasons for the rise of metabolic disorders like type II diabetes, obesity, hypertension and dyslipidemia among people of various age groups. High fat diet induced diabetic rodent models resembling type II diabetic condition in human population were used to assess the anti-diabetic and hypolipidemic activity of guggulsterone (isolated from Commiphora mukul resin). Four groups of rats were fed high fat diet, for 16 weeks. On feeding the normal rats with fat rich diet they showed increased serum glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels along with increase in insulin resistance significantly (p<0.05) in comparison to control animals. Different biochemical parameters like GTT, glycogen content, glucose homeostatic enzymes (like glucose-6-phosphatase, hexokinase), insulin release in vivo and expression profiles of various genes involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism clearly demonstrated the hypoglycemic effect of this extract. Guggulsterone demonstrated a differential effect with a significantly improved PPARgamma expression and activity in in vivo and in vitro conditions, respectively. However, it inhibited 3T3-L1 preadipocytes differentiation in vitro. The results presented here suggest that the guggulsterone has both hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effect which can help to cure type II diabetes.

Steroids, alkaloids, and coumarins from Gelsemium sempervirens.

The 95 % ethanol extract of Gelsemium sempervirens showed inhibitory activity against human DNA topoisomerase I (Topo I). Phytochemical investigations of this active extract resulted in the isolation and identification of three new steroids ( 1 - 3), together with eight known compounds 12 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-pregn-16-ene-3,20-dione ( 4), gelsemine ( 5), sempervirine ( 6), scopoletin ( 7), 7- O- beta- D-glucopyranosylscopoletin ( 8), 7- O- beta- D-apiofuranosyl-(1-->6)- beta- D-glucopyranosylscopoletin ( 9), uvaol ( 10), and 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethyl heptadecanoate ( 11). The structures of the new steroids were determined by extensive NMR and HR-ESI-MS analyses as 21-hydroxy-5 alpha-pregn-16-ene-3,20-dione ( 1), 3-oxoandrosta-16-ene-17-carboxylic acid ( 2), and 3-oxoandrosta-4,16-diene-17-carboxylic acid ( 3). This study suggests that sempervirine ( 6) intercalates to DNA and also inhibits Topo I through modulating the enzyme activity with an IC (50) of 54.5 +/- 15.9 muM.

Sensitive simultaneous determination of ciclesonide, ciclesonide-M1-metabolite and fluticasone propionate in human serum by HPLC-MS/MS with APPI.

A new and very sensitive analytical method has been developed and validated to jointly determine the anti-inflammatory drug ciclesonide (CIC), its active principle metabolite M1 (CIC-M1) and fluticasone propionate (FP) in human serum, in the low concentration range from 10 to 1000 pg/mL. This was accomplished by high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry using atmospheric pressure photo ionisation (HPLC-MS/MS with APPI) using 0.5 mL of serum. Serum was mixed with the internal standards (IS) D11-CIC and D11-CIC-M1 and extracted with diisopropylether. A gradient with acetonitrile (containing 10 mM of acetic acid and 10% of acetone) was used. HPLC-MS/MS of the acetic acid adducts of the analytes was performed in negative mode. The novel aspect of this method is that instead of the dopant being introduced directly into the source by means of an external HPLC pump, it was added to the mobile phase. This provided significantly better sensitivity than the usual method of in-source addition of the dopant, and with no loss in HPLC performance. Sensitivity for the analytes was about four times greater than with either APCI or ESI. Validation was performed in three batches. The inter-batch precision (CV) of the quality control samples in human serum ranged from 4.08% to 6.78% for CIC, from 2.57% to 7.74% for CIC-M1, and from 2.38% to 9.61% for FP. The inter-batch accuracy (with reference to the mean value) of the quality control samples in human serum ranged from 99.3% to 110.0% for CIC, from 101.8% to 104.7% for CIC-M1, and from 100.4% to 101.8% for FP. Calibration data and LLOQ data are also presented in this paper. The analytes were stable in human serum over three freeze/thaw cycles, or for 4h at room temperature, or for at least 18 months when stored at below -20 degrees C. This method was used for quantifying the analytes after inhalation of low-mug amounts of the drugs by patients.

Biocompatible sample pretreatment for immunochemical techniques using micellar liquid chromatography for separation of corticosteroids.

Micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) using Tween 20 as surfactant was evaluated as a biocompatible sample pretreatment preceding immunoassay in order to obtain an increased selectivity of the assay and a simplification of the sample pretreatment procedure. Different stationary phases and chromatographic conditions were studied for the separation of budesonide and cortisol and some steroids known to interfere in immunoassay of these compounds. The separation was dependent on several parameters, for example, temperature, the concentration of Tween 20, pH and ionic strength of the mobile phase, and nature of the stationary phase. A precolumn venting system was used, which allowed for 140 direct injections of 25 microliters of human blood plasma, without loss of chromatographic performance. Results obtained from the coupling of MLC to an immunoassay for cortisol illustrates the selectivity which can be obtained, and that simplification of the sample pretreatment is possible using this technique.