The Properties of Solutions of Isoniazid in Water and Dimethylsulfoxide

Fabrication of a multi-layer CNT-PbO2 anode for the degradation of isoniazid: Kinetics and mechanism

In this study, the CNTs were successfully compounded in PbO₂ electrode through composite electrodeposition technology to obtain multi-layer CNT-PbO₂ electrode. Scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy were comprehensively used to characterize the lead dioxide electrode and the electrochemical performance were also tested by cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Results showed that CNT-PbO₂ significantly improved the electrochemical performance, which was attributed to that the compound of CNTs in PbO₂ improved the active sites on the surface, with higher oxidation peaks, smaller particle size, larger specific surface area, and lower charge transfer resistance. In the degradation experiment, the chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency of isoniazid by CNT-PbO₂ electrode were 1.37 times of that by pure PbO₂ electrode. The main influence factors on the degradation of ISN, such as initial ISN concentration, Na₂SO₄ concentration, current density and initial pH value was analyzed in detail. Considered comprehensively the effects of ISN removal efficiency, COD and average current efficiency, the degradation of ISN and COD reached 99.4% and 86.8%, respectively, after the electrode was degraded by electrochemical oxidation for 120 min under the best conditions. In addition, the degradation mechanism of ISN in electrochemical oxidation was studied. According to the intermediate products detected by GC-MS, the possible degradation pathway of ISN in electrochemical oxidation system were proposed.

Quantification of Unknown Nanoscale Biomolecules Using the Average-Weight-Difference Method

In order to quantify the amount of drug molecules in drug delivery systems, analytical techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography are used due to their accuracy and reliability. However, the instruments required for such techniques are expensive and not available in all laboratories. Therefore, in this study, we introduce a method that can be a relatively inexpensive and easy to perform drug analysis in almost any laboratory set-up. We have devised the “average-weight-difference method” within the limits of existing spectral analyses. By employing this method, we quantitatively analyzed the amount of isoniazid or doxorubicin molecules loaded onto β-glucan nanoparticles. This proved to be a relatively simple and reliable method and can be used to estimate the amount of nanoscale biomolecules before their analysis through expensive equipment in an environment where the instruments are not readily available.

HT-SPOTi: A Rapid Drug Susceptibility Test (DST) to Evaluate Antibiotic Resistance Profiles and Novel Chemicals for Anti-Infective Drug Discovery

Antibiotic resistance is one of the major threats to global health and well-being. The past decade has seen an alarming rise in the evolution and spread of drug-resistant strains of pathogenic microbes. The emergence of extensively drug resistant (XDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance among the ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumanii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) as well as fungal pathogens (such as certain species of Candida, Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, and Trichophyton) poses a significant 21st century scientific challenge. With an extremely limited arsenal of efficacious antibiotics, techniques that can (a) identify novel antimicrobials and (b) detect antimicrobial resistance are becoming increasingly important. In this article, we illustrate the HT-SPOTi, an assay that is principally based on the growth of an organism on agar medium containing a range of different concentrations of drugs or inhibitors. The simple methodology makes this assay ideal for evaluating novel antimicrobial compounds as well as profiling an organism's antibiotic resistance profile.