Generics in trouble.

A novel approach for the rapid, accurate mass analysis of pharmaceutical solid, liquid, and cream formulations using desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) is described. The method is based on polarity switching and real-time accurate mass measurement in an orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer fitted with a dual-inlet electrospray ion source. Infusion of a reference compound into one inlet provides a single-point "lock mass" for accurate mass measurement. The other inlet sprays solvent at the sample being investigated using DESI. Minimal sample preparation was required. Results demonstrate the ability to acquire simultaneously positive and negative accurate mass DESI data within the same acquisition, thus negating the need for repeat analysis in each ion mode. In this paper, drugs that preferentially ionize in a particular mode depending on their physiochemical properties are presented. Mass accuracy to within 2 mTh was obtained for all drugs sampled.

Pharmaceutical Preparations↗

PubMed2006

Small molecule pharmacological chaperones: From thermodynamic stabilization to pharmaceutical drugs.

A great deal of attention has been paid to so-called amyloid diseases, in which the proteins responsible for the cell death and resultant diseases undergo conformational changes and aggregate in vivo, although whether aggregate formation is the cause or the result of the cell death is controversial. Recently, an increasing attention is given to protein folding diseases tightly associated with mutations. These mutations result in temperature-dependent misfolding and hence inactivation of the proteins, leading to loss of function, at physiological temperature; at low so-called permissive temperatures, the mutant proteins correctly fold and acquire functional structure. Alternatively, activation can be induced by use of osmolytes, which restores the folding of the mutant proteins and hence are called chemical chaperones. The osmolytes are compatible with macromolecular function and do stabilize the native protein structure. However, chemical chaperones require high concentrations for effective folding of mutant proteins and hence are too toxic in in-vivo applications. This limitation can be overcome by pharmacological chaperones, whose functions are similar to the chemical chaperones, but occur at much lower concentrations, i.e., physiologically acceptable concentrations. Although the research and clinical importance of pharmacological chaperones has been emphasized, the initial and central concept of osmolytes is largely ignored. Here we attempt to bridge the concept of osmolytes to applications of pharmacological chaperones.

Pharmaceutical Preparations↗