Selective separation of α- and β-cyclodextrins by complexation/ultrafiltration using supra molecular host-guest interaction

Computer-Aided Discovery of New Solubility-Enhancing Drug Delivery System

The poor aqueous solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) places a limit on their therapeutic potential. Cyclodextrins (CDs) have been shown to improve the solubility of APIs, but the magnitude of the improvement depends on the structure of both the CDs and APIs. We have developed quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) models that predict the stability of the complexes formed by a popular poorly soluble antibiotic, cefuroxime axetil (CA) and different CDs. We applied this model to five CA-CD systems not included in the modeling set. Two out of three systems predicted to have poor stability and poor CA solubility, and both CA-CD systems predicted to have high stability and high CA solubility were confirmed experimentally. One of the CDs that significantly improved CA solubility, methyl-βCD, is described here for the first time, and we propose this CD as a novel promising excipient. Computational approaches and models developed and validated in this study could help accelerate the development of multifunctional CDs-based formulations.

Selective separation and recovery of heavy metals from electroplating effluent using shear-induced dissociation coupling with ultrafiltration

Shear-induced dissociation coupling with ultrafiltration (SID-UF) is an efficient and environment-friendly technology for the separation of heavy metal ions. In this paper, SID-UF was successfully employed for the selective recovery of nickel, zinc and copper from electroplating effluent using poly (acrylic acid) sodium (PAAS) and copolymer of maleic acid and acrylic acid (PMA) as complexants, respectively. The effects of the pH, mass ratio of polymer to metal ions (P/M) and the rotating speed on the metals removal efficiency are discussed in detail. The shear stabilities of the polymer-metal complexes were explored and the complexes critical shear rates (γ_c) were calculated. The results show that the order of the shear stabilities of PAA-metal complex is PAA-Zn > PAA-Cu > PAA-Ni, and that of PMA-metal complex is PMA-Cu > PMA-Ni > PMA-Zn. In addition, the construction of the stable structures of complexes and the calculation of the energies of the frontier molecular orbital by density functional theory method further predict and confirm the shear stabilities of the polymer-metal complexes.