Quantitative determination of acyclovir in plasma by near infrared spectroscopy

First Acyclovir Determination Procedure via Electrochemically Activated Screen-Printed Carbon Electrode Coupled with Well-Conductive Base Electrolyte

In this work, a new voltammetric procedure for acyclovir (ACY) trace-level determination has been described. For this purpose, an electrochemically activated screen-printed carbon electrode (aSPCE) coupled with well-conductive electrolyte (CH3COONH4, CH3COOH and NH4Cl) was used for the first time. A commercially available SPCE sensor was electrochemically activated by conducting cyclic voltammetry (CV) scans in 0.1 mol L-1 NaOH solution and rinsed with deionized water before a series of measurements were taken. This treatment reduced the charge transfer resistance, increased the electrode active surface area and improved the kinetics of the electron transfer. The activation step and high conductivity of supporting electrolyte significantly improved the sensitivity of the procedure. The newly developed differential-pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DPAdSV) procedure is characterized by having the lowest limit of detection among all voltammetric procedures currently described in the literature (0.12 nmol L-1), a wide linear range of the calibration curve (0.5-50.0 and 50.0-1000.0 nmol L-1) as well as extremely high sensitivity (90.24 nA nmol L-1) and was successfully applied in the determination of acyclovir in commercially available pharmaceuticals.

Improved Performance for the Electrochemical Sensing of Acyclovir by Using the rGO–TiO2–Au Nanocomposite-Modified Electrode

An electrochemical sensor for sensitive sensing of acyclovir (ACV) was designed by using the reduced graphene oxide–TiO₂–Au nanocomposite-modified glassy carbon electrode (rGO–TiO₂–Au/GCE). Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometer, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to confirm morphology, structure, and composition properties of the rGO–TiO₂–Au nanocomposites. Cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry were used to demonstrate the analytical performance of the rGO–TiO₂–Au/GCE for ACV. As a result, rGO–TiO₂–Au/GCE exerted the best response for the oxidation of ACV under the pH of 6.0 PB solution, accumulation time of 80 s at open-circuit, and modifier amount of 7 µl. The oxidation peak currents of ACV increased linearly with its concentration in the range of 1–100 µM, and the detection limit was calculated to be 0.3 µM (S/N = 3). The determination of ACV concentrations in tablet samples also demonstrated satisfactory results.

Screening and application of a broad-spectrum aptamer for acyclic guanosine analogues

Acyclic guanosine analogues, a class of widely used antiviral drugs, can cause chronic toxicity and virus resistance. Therefore, it is essential to establish rapid and accurate methods to detect acyclic guanosine analogues. In this study, five acyclic guanosine analogues (acyclovir, famciclovir, ganciclovir, penciclovir, and valaciclovir) were used as positive targets to obtain broad-spectrum aptamers through Capture-SELEX technology. Real-time quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) was used to monitor the aptamer SELEX process. After the sixteen rounds of selection against mixed targets, sequences were obtained by high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Furthermore, a broad-spectrum aptamer, named CIV6, was found as the higher performance aptamer that was suitable for five acyclic guanosine analogues by graphene oxide (GO) polarization and fluorescence assay. Finally, the aptamer CIV6 was used to construct GO fluorescence assay to detect five acyclic guanosine analogues. The limits of detection (LOD) of acyclovir, famciclovir, ganciclovir, penciclovir, and valaciclovir were 0.48 ng·mL^-1, 0.53 ng·mL^-1, 0.50 ng·mL^-1, 0.56 ng·mL^-1, and 0.38 ng·mL^-1, respectively.

Electrochemical Oxidation and Determination of Antiviral Drug Acyclovir by Modified Carbon Paste Electrode With Magnetic CdO Nanoparticles

With the development of nanomaterials in electrochemical sensors, the use of nanostructures to modify the electrode surface has been shown to improve the kinetics of the electron transfer process. In this study, a sensor was developed for the electrochemical determination of Acyclovir (ACV) based on the modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) by CdO/Fe₃O₄. The magnetic CdO nanoparticles characterization was studied by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). To study of the modified CPE surface morphology, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used. At the optimal conditions, a noteworthy enhancement in the electrochemical behavior of ACV was observed at the surface of the modified CPE compared to the unmodified CPE. A detection limit of 300 nM and a linear range of 1–100 μM were obtained for the quantitative monitoring of ACV at the modified CPE surface using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in phosphate buffer. The RSD% (relative standard deviation) of the electrode response was <4.3% indicating the development of a high precision method. Also, satisfactory results were obtained in the determination of ACV with the modified electrode in tablet, blood serum, and urine samples with a satisfactory relative recovery (RR%) in the range of 94.0–104.4%.

In-vivo evaluation of clindamycin release from glyceryl monooleate-alginate microspheres by NIR spectroscopy

The purpose of this study was to use near-infrared (NIR) transmission spectroscopic technique to determine clindamycin plasma concentration after oral administration of clindamycin loaded GMO-alginate microspheres using rabbits as animal models. Lyophilized clindamycin-plasma standard samples at a concentration range of 0.001-10 μg/ml were prepared and analyzed by NIR and HPLC as a reference method. NIR calibration model was developed with partial least square (PLS) regression analysis. Then, a single dose in-vivo evaluation was carried out and clindamycin-plasma concentration was estimated by NIR. Over 24 h time period, the pharmacokinetic parameters of clindamycin were calculated for the clindamycin loaded GMO-alginate microspheres (F3) and alginate microspheres (F2), and compared with the plain drug (F1). PLS calibration model with 7-principal components (PC), and 8000-9200 cm(-1) spectral range shows a good correlation between HPLC and NIR values with root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV), root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP), and calibration coefficient (R(2)) values of 0.245, 1.164, and 0.9753, respectively, which suggests that NIR transmission technique can be used for drug-plasma analysis without any extraction procedure. F3 microspheres exhibited controlled and prolonged absorption Tmax of 4.0 vs. 1.0 and 0.5 h; Cmax of 2.37±0.3 vs. 3.81±0.8 and 5.43±0.7 μg/ml for F2 and F1, respectively. These results suggest that the combination of GMO and alginate (1:4 w/w) could be successfully employed for once daily clindamycin microspheres formulation which confirmed by low Cmax and high Tmax values.

Determination of the antiretroviral drug acyclovir in diluted alkaline electrolyte by adsorptive stripping voltammetry at the mercury film electrode

This paper describes a stripping method for the determination of acyclovir at the submicromolar concentration level. This method is based on controlled adsorptive accumulation of acyclovir at thin-film mercury electrode, followed by a linear cyclic scan voltammetry measurement of the surface species. Optimal experimental conditions include a NaOH solution of 2.0 × 10⁻³ mol L⁻¹ (supporting electrolyte), an accumulation potential of −0.40 V, and a scan rate of 100 mV s⁻¹. The response of acyclovir is linear over the concentration range 0.02 to 0.12 ppm. For an accumulation time of 4 minutes, the detection limit was found to be 0.42 ppb (1.0 × 10⁻⁹ mol L⁻¹). More convenient methods to measure the acyclovir in presence of the didanosine, efavirenz, nevirapine, nelfinavir, lamivudine, and zidovudine were also investigated. The utility of this method is demonstrated by the presence of acyclovir together with Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or DNA.

Critical review of near-infrared spectroscopic methods validations in pharmaceutical applications

Based on the large number of publications reported over the past five years, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is more and more considered an attractive and promising analytical tool regarding Process Analytical Technology and Green Chemistry. From the reviewed literature, few of these publications present a thoroughly validated NIRS method even if some guidelines have been published by different groups and regulatory authorities. However, as any analytical method, the validation of NIRS method is a mandatory step at the end of the development in order to give enough guarantees that each of the future results during routine use will be close enough to the true value. Besides the introduction of PAT concepts in the revised document of the European Pharmacopoeia (2.2.40) dealing with near-infrared spectroscopy recently published in Pharmeuropa, it agrees very well with this mandatory step. Indeed, the latter suggests to use similar analytical performance characteristics than those required for any analytical procedure based on acceptance criteria consistent with the intended use of the method. In this context, this review gives a comprehensive and critical overview of the methodologies applied to assess the validity of quantitative NIRS methods used in pharmaceutical applications.