A novel highly sensitive UHPLC-MS/MS method for monitoring vincristine in plasma and vitreous humor samples with potential application in retinoblastoma therapy

Adoption of self-exothermic reaction for synthesis of multifunctional carbon quantum dots: Applications to vincristine sensing and cell imaging

This work introduces an extremely easy method for preparing luminescent carbon dots (CDs) at ambient temperature using 1,2-naphthoquinone sulphonate and ethylenediamine as precursors via self-exothermic reaction without energy input. The as-obtained CDs have a high quantum yield (34.1 %), a production yield of 21.2 %, and a small size diameter (3.44 nm). Various techniques (NMR, TEM, EDX-mapping, XPS, XRD, FT-IR, fluorescence, and UV-visible spectroscopy) were used to characterize the prepared CDs. The CDs exhibited an excitation-independent emission with λex of 275 nm, demonstrating their homogeneity and high purity. The anticancer drug vincristine (VCR) quantitively quenched the fluorescent signal of the synthesized CDs, allowing their application as the first fluorescent nano-sensor to determine VCR. The quenching effect was linear within the range of 0.2-5.0 μg mL-1, enabling the determination of VCR in vials, plasma, and for content uniformity testing with a detection limit of 0.06 μg mL-1. Moreover, the synthesized CDs were employed as a bio-sensing platform to detect VCR in cancer cells owing to their good selectivity, excellent biocompatibility, minimal cytotoxicity, and high stability. The fabrication of CDs with excellent properties at room temperature under mild conditions paves the way for new advancements in the room temperature synthesis of CDs and offers a highly efficient alternative to traditional synthesis approaches.

Proactive therapeutic drug monitoring of vincristine in pediatric and adult cancer patients: current supporting evidence and future efforts

Vincristine (VCR), an effective antitumor drug, has been utilized in several polytherapy regimens for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, neuroblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. However, clinical evidence shows that the metabolism of VCR varies greatly among patients. The traditional based body surface area (BSA) administration method is prone to insufficient exposure to VCR or severe VCR-induced peripheral neurotoxicity (VIPN). Therefore, reliable strategies are urgently needed to improve efficacy and reduce VIPN. Due to the unpredictable pharmacokinetic changes of VCR, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) may help to ensure its efficacy and to manage VIPN. At present, there is a lot of supporting evidence for the suitability of applying TDM to VCR therapy. Based on the consensus guidelines drafted by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT), this review aimed to summarize various available data to evaluate the potential utility of VCR TDM for cancer patients. Of note, valuable evidence has accumulated on pharmacokinetics variability, pharmacodynamics, drug exposure-clinical response relationship, biomarkers for VIPN prediction, and assays for VCR monitoring. However, there are still many relevant clinical pharmacological questions that cannot yet be answered merely based on insufficient evidence. Currently, we cannot recommend a therapeutic exposure range and cannot yet provide a dose-adaptation strategy for clinicians and patients. In areas where the evidence is not yet sufficient, more research is needed in the future. The precision medicine of VCR cannot rely on TDM alone and needs to consider the clinical, environmental, genetic background and patient-specific factors as a whole.