Electrochemical preparation of sodium dodecylsulfate doped over-oxidized polypyrrole/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite on glassy carbon electrode and its application on sensitive and selective determination of anticancer drug: pemetrexed

Electrochemistry as a Powerful Tool for Investigations of Antineoplastic Agents: A Comprehensive Review

Cancer is most frequently treated with antineoplastic agents (ANAs) that are hazardous to patients undergoing chemotherapy and the healthcare workers who handle ANAs in the course of their duties. All aspects related to hazardous oncological drugs illustrate that the monitoring of ANAs is essential to minimize the risks associated with these drugs. Among all analytical techniques used to test ANAs, electrochemistry holds an important position. This review, for the first time, comprehensively describes the progress done in electrochemistry of ANAs by means of a variety of bare or modified (bio)sensors over the last four decades (in the period of 1982-2021). Attention is paid not only to the development of electrochemical sensing protocols of ANAs in various biological, environmental, and pharmaceutical matrices but also to achievements of electrochemical techniques in the examination of the interactions of ANAs with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), carcinogenic cells, biomimetic membranes, peptides, and enzymes. Other aspects, including the enantiopurity studies, differentiation between single-stranded and double-stranded DNA without using any label or tag, studies on ANAs degradation, and their pharmacokinetics, by means of electrochemical techniques are also commented. Finally, concluding remarks that underline the existence of a significant niche for the basic electrochemical research that should be filled in the future are presented.

Eco-Friendly Stability-Indicating HPLC Method for Related Compounds in Pemetrexed Ditromethamine (Antineoplastic Agent) for Injection

BACKGROUND

An eco-friendly analytical technique was developed with the intention of preserving the environment by using green chemistry principles. Pemetrexed is a folate analogue indicated for the treatment of advanced lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE

Development of a green stability-indicating HPLC method for the quantification of pemetrexed ditromethamine (PDT) impurities in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and parenteral dosage form.

METHODS

Chromatographic separation was achieved using a Zorbax SB C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 3.5 µ particle size) with perchlorate buffer (pH 3.0 ± 0.1, 50 mM) as mobile phase A and acetonitrile-perchlorate (90 + 10, v/v) buffer as mobile phase B at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min with a column temperature of 40°C ± 0.5°C. All analytes were well resolved by gradient elution with a total run time of 75 min. The UV detection wavelength was 230 nm.

RESULTS

The RP-HPLC method is capable of resolving all the degradation and process impurities for PDT API and parenteral dosage form. The related compounds method was validated in accordance with International conference on harmonization (ICH) Q2(R1) and United states of Pharmacopoeia (USP) <1225> guidelines, and found to be accurate, specific, precise, linear, robust and stability-indicating. The precision and intermediate results were <5% CV for all the impurities. The accuracy for all the impurities was found to be between 90 and 110%. The linearity of regression co-efficient values for all the impurities were found to be more than 0.999.

CONCLUSION

The proposed related compounds method is found suitable for the determination of process and degradation impurities of commercial formulations, stability samples in QC analysis for PDT API, and drug product.

HIGHLIGHTS

The developed liquid chromatographic method greenness and eco-friendliness were assessed using the green analytical procedure index (GAPI) and the analytical greenness (AGREE) tool, and found to be green. A PDT detoxification procedure was also developed to reduce environmental pollution.

Molecular imprinting technology for biomedical applications

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), a type of biomimetic material, have attracted considerable interest owing to their cost-effectiveness, good physiochemical stability, favourable specificity and selectivity for target analytes, and widely used for various biological applications. It was demonstrated that MIPs with significant selectivity towards protein-based targets could be applied in medicine, diagnostics, proteomics, environmental analysis, sensors, various in vivo and/or in vitro applications, drug delivery systems, etc. This review provides an overview of MIPs dedicated to biomedical applications and insights into perspectives on the application of MIPs in newly emerging areas of biotechnology. Many different protocols applied for the synthesis of MIPs are overviewed in this review. The templates used for molecular imprinting vary from the minor glycosylated glycan-based structures, amino acids, and proteins to whole bacteria, which are also overviewed in this review. Economic, environmental, rapid preparation, stability, and reproducibility have been highlighted as significant advantages of MIPs. Particularly, some specialized MIPs, in addition to molecular recognition properties, can have high catalytic activity, which in some cases could be compared with other bio-catalytic systems. Therefore, such MIPs belong to the class of so-called 'artificial enzymes'. The discussion provided in this manuscript furnishes a comparative analysis of different approaches developed, underlining their relative advantages and disadvantages highlighting trends and possible future directions of MIP technology.

A nanoscale electrochemical guanine DNA-biosensor based on a flower-like nanocomposite of Tb-doped ZnO for the sensitive determination of pemetrexed

Pemetrexed is an antineoplastic drug used in chemotherapeutic treatments, especially in malignant mesothelioma and non-small cell lung carcinoma, but can also cause a variety of complications, like stomach pain, nausea, burning, vomiting, numbness, and tingling, emphasizing the need for an approach to quantify the drug in biological matrices. Herein, a DNA-based biosensor was introduced for pemetrexed determination. A hydrothermal approach was used for synthesizing flower-like nanoparticles (NPs) of zinc oxide (ZnO) doped with Tb (FL-NP Tb3+/ZnO). Moreover, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), zeta potential, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses were used for characterizing the as-prepared nanocomposite. According to the impedance analysis, FL-NP Tb3+/ZnO was accompanied by very good electrochemical functions for a simple transfer of electrons. In the case of the immobilization of double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ds-DNA) on the FL-NP Tb3+/ZnO and polypyrrole (PP)-modified pencil graphite electrode (ds-DNA/PP/FL-NP Tb3+/ZnO/PGE), a considerable enhancement was found in the electrochemical oxidation of guanine in ds-DNA residue bases. Since there was an interaction between ds-DNA and pemetrexed, the voltammetric current of guanine over the ds-DNA/PP/FL-NP Tb3+/ZnO/PGE declined in the presence of pemetrexed in the electrolytic solution. Moreover, under optimum conditions (25 mg L-1 of ds-DNA and 10 min incubation time, in acetate buffer at 25 °C), a linear decrease in the guanine signal was observed on the ds-DNA/PP/FL-NP Tb3+/ZnO/PGE as the pemetrexed concentration increased in the range from 0.001 μM to 175.0 μM with a limit of detection of 0.17 nM. Finally, the new DNA-based biosensor was successfully used for determining pemetrexed in real samples, indicating its application potential.

Comparative MIP sensor technique: photopolymerization or thermal polymerization for the sensitive determination of anticancer drug Regorafenib in different matrixes

Regorafenib (REG) is a diphenylurea derivative oral multikinase inhibitor. It plays an important role in the treatment of colorectal cancer, metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) based glassy carbon electrodes (GCE) were fabricated using photopolymerization (PP) and thermal polymerization (TP) methods. The characterizations of the proposed sensors were investigated by electrochemical techniques, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Several parameters were studied in detail for the optimum conditions of MIP-based sensors, such as dropping volume, photopolymerization and thermal polymerization durations, removal medium and time, and rebinding time. Both sensors' analytical validation and electroanalytical performance comparison were made in different REG concentrations ranging between 0.1 nM and 2.5 nM in standard solution and commercial human serum samples. The limit of detection (LOD) of PP-REG@MIP/GCE and TP-REG@MIP/GCE were 9.13 × 10-12 M and 1.44 × 10-11 M in standard solutions and 2.04 × 10-11 M and 2.02 × 10-11 M in serum samples, respectively. The applicability of the proposed sensors was tested using commercial human serum samples and pharmaceutical form of REG with high recovery values (PP-REG@MIP/GCE and TP REG@MIP/GCE sensors, 99.56-101.59%, respectively). The selectivity of the sensor for REG was investigated in the presence of similar molecules: Sorafenib, Sunitinib, Nilotinib, and Imatinib. The developed techniques and sensors checked the possible biological compounds and ions' effects and storage stability.

Development of molecularly imprinted polymer based phase boundaries for sensors design (review)

Achievements in polymer chemistry enables to design artificial phase boundaries modified by imprints of selected molecules and some larger structures. These structures seem very useful for the design of new materials suitable for affinity chromatography and sensors. In this review, we are overviewing the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and the applicability of these MIPs in the design of affinity sensors. Such MIP-based layers or particles can be used as analyte-recognizing parts for sensors and in some cases they can replace very expensive compounds (e.g.: antibodies, receptors etc.), which are recognizing analyte. Many different polymers can be used for the formation of MIPs, but conducing polymers shows the most attractive capabilities for molecular-imprinting by various chemical compounds. Therefore, the application of conducting polymers (e.g.: polypyrrole, polyaniline, polythiophene, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), and ortho-phenylenediamine) seems very promising. Polypyrrole is one of the most suitable for the development of MIP-based structures with molecular imprints by analytes of various molecular weights. Overoxiation of polypyrrole enables to increase the selectivity of polypyrrole-based MIPs. Methods used for the synthesis of conducting polymer based MIPs are overviewed. Some methods, which are applied for the transduction of analytical signal, are discussed, and challenges and new trends in MIP-technology are foreseen.

Electrochemically Deposited Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Sensors

This review is dedicated to the development of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and the application of MIPs in sensor design. MIP-based biological recognition parts can replace receptors or antibodies, which are rather expensive. Conducting polymers show unique properties that are applicable in sensor design. Therefore, MIP-based conducting polymers, including polypyrrole, polythiophene, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), polyaniline and ortho-phenylenediamine are frequently applied in sensor design. Some other materials that can be molecularly imprinted are also overviewed in this review. Among many imprintable materials conducting polymer, polypyrrole is one of the most suitable for molecular imprinting of various targets ranging from small organics up to rather large proteins. Some attention in this review is dedicated to overview methods applied to design MIP-based sensing structures. Some attention is dedicated to the physicochemical methods applied for the transduction of analytical signals. Expected new trends and horizons in the application of MIP-based structures are also discussed.

Deciphering the mechanism and binding interactions of Pemetrexed with dsDNA with DNA-targeted chemotherapeutics via spectroscopic, analytical, and simulation studies

Pemetrexed is a well-known and widely used antineoplastic drug under the category of cytotoxic, folate anti-metabolites that is used in chemotherapeutic treatments, especially in malignant mesothelioma and non-small cell lung carcinoma. Here, the binding mechanism and interactions of Pemetrexed with double strain fish sperm deoxyribonucleic acid (dsDNA) were studied thoroughly both experimentally and theoretically, using multi-spectroscopic techniques and molecular docking simulations. Our ultimate goal is to understand better the potential of such antineoplastic drugs and, hence, to design drugs with high dsDNA binding affinities and fewer adverse effects. We employed several techniques yielding different but complementary results such as UV, fluorescence, thermal denaturation, electrochemical and viscosity, and molecular docking studies under physiological conditions. Our results revealed that the Pemetrexed binds fairly strongly to dsDNA's minor groove through hydrogen bond interactions with the mostly adenine and guanine bases via its p-carbamide and p-carboxylic groups. MD simulations of the drug-dsDNA complex were followed for 50 ns to confirm that interaction is stable and robust electrostatic interactions were due to hydrogen bonding mostly with the adenine and guanine nucleotides in the minor groove.

Advances in Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Based Affinity Sensors (Review)

Recent challenges in biomedical diagnostics show that the development of rapid affinity sensors is very important issue. Therefore, in this review we are aiming to outline the most important directions of affinity sensors where polymer-based semiconducting materials are applied. Progress in formation and development of such materials is overviewed and discussed. Some applicability aspects of conducting polymers in the design of affinity sensors are presented. The main attention is focused on bioanalytical application of conducting polymers such as polypyrrole, polyaniline, polythiophene and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) ortho-phenylenediamine. In addition, some other polymers and inorganic materials that are suitable for molecular imprinting technology are also overviewed. Polymerization techniques, which are the most suitable for the development of composite structures suitable for affinity sensors are presented. Analytical signal transduction methods applied in affinity sensors based on polymer-based semiconducting materials are discussed. In this review the most attention is focused on the development and application of molecularly imprinted polymer-based structures, which can replace antibodies, receptors, and many others expensive affinity reagents. The applicability of electrochromic polymers in affinity sensor design is envisaged. Sufficient biocompatibility of some conducting polymers enables to apply them as "stealth coatings" in the future implantable affinity-sensors. Some new perspectives and trends in analytical application of polymer-based semiconducting materials are highlighted.

Sensitive Detection of Levocetirizine as a new Generation Antihistamine by Stripping Square Wave Voltammetry

Background::

new and selective electrochemical sensor was developed for the determination of levocetirizine dihydrochloride, which is an antihistaminic drug.

Method::

The investigation was performed by using cyclic, differential pulse and square wave voltammetric methods on the β-cyclodextrin modified glassy carbon electrode. It is thereby planned to obtain information about levocetirizine determination and its mechanism.

Result::

The efficiency of experimental parameters including pH, scan rate, and accumulation potential and time on the anodic response of levocetirizine dihydrochloride was studied. By employing the developed method and under optimized conditions, the current showed linear dependence with a concentration in the range between 2 × 10-8 M and 6 × 10-6 M in pH 2.0 Britton Robinson (BR) buffer.

Conclusion::

The achieved limits of detection and quantification were found as 3.73 × 10-10 M and 1.24 × 10-9 M, respectively. In addition, the possibility of applying the developed sensor for real sample analysis was investigated, so β-cyclodextrin modified glassy carbon electrode was used to determine levocetirizine dihydrochloride in Xyzal® tablet dosage form. Finally, this sensor was successfully applied to the real sample as a selective, simple, reproducible, repeatable electrochemical sensor.

Biosensors in Drug Discovery and Drug Analysis

Background:

The determination of drugs in pharmaceutical formulations and human biologic fluids is important for pharmaceutical and medical sciences. Successful analysis requires low sensitivity, high selectivity and minimum interference effects. Current analytical methods can detect drugs at very low levels but these methods require long sample preparation steps, extraction prior to analysis, highly trained technical staff and high-cost instruments. Biosensors offer several advantages such as short analysis time, high sensitivity, real-time analysis, low-cost instruments, and short pretreatment steps over traditional techniques. Biosensors allow quantification not only of the active component in pharmaceutical formulations, but also the degradation products and metabolites in biological fluids. The present review gives comprehensive information on the application of biosensors for drug discovery and analysis. Moreover, this review focuses on the fabrication of these biosensors.

Methods:

Biosensors can be classified as the utilized bioreceptor and the signal transduction mechanism. The classification based on signal transductions includes electrochemical optical, thermal or acoustic. Electrochemical and optic transducers are mostly utilized transducers used for drug analysis. There are many biological recognition elements, such as enzymes, antibodies, cells that have been used in fabricating of biosensors. Aptamers and antibodies are the most widely used recognition elements for the screening of the drugs. Electrochemical sensors and biosensors have several advantages such as low detection limits, a wide linear response range, good stability and reproducibility. Optical biosensors have several advantages such as direct, real-time and label-free detection of many biological and chemical substances, high specificity, sensitivity, small size and low cost. Modified electrodes enhance sensitivity of the electrodes to develop a new biosensor with desired features. Chemically modified electrodes have gained attention in drug analysis owing to low background current, wide potential window range, simple surface renewal, low detection limit and low cost. Modified electrodes produced by modifying of a solid surface electrode via different materials (carbonaceous materials, metal nanoparticles, polymer, biomolecules) immobilization. Recent advances in nanotechnology offer opportunities to design and construct biosensors. Unique features of nanomaterials provide many advantages in the fabrication of biosensors. Nanomaterials have controllable chemical structures, large surface to volume ratios, functional groups on their surface. To develop proteininorganic hybrid nanomaterials, four preparation methods have been used. These methods are immobilization, conjugation, crosslinking and self-assembly. In the present manuscript, applications of different biosensors, fabricated by using several materials, for drug analysis are reviewed. The biosensing strategies are investigated and discussed in detail.

Results:

Several analytical techniques such as chromatography, spectroscopy, radiometry, immunoassays and electrochemistry have been used for drug analysis and quantification. Methods based on chromatography require timeconsuming procedure, long sample-preparation steps, expensive instruments and trained staff. Compared to chromatographic methods, immunoassays have simple protocols and lower cost. Electrochemical measurements have many advantages over traditional chemical analyses and give information about drug quantity, metabolic fate of drugs, and pharmacological activity. Moreover, the electroanalytical methods are useful to determine drugs sensitively and selectivity. Additionally, these methods decrease analysis cost and require low-cost instruments and simple sample pretreatment steps.

Conclusion:

In recent years, drug analyses are performed using traditional techniques. These techniques have a good detection limit, but they have some limitations such as long analysis time, expensive device and experienced personnel requirement. Increased demand for practical and low-cost analytical techniques biosensor has gained interest for drug determinations in medical sciences. Biosensors are unique and successful devices when compared to traditional techniques. For drug determination, different electrode modification materials and different biorecognition elements are used for biosensor construction. Several biosensor construction strategies have been developed to enhance the biosensor performance. With the considerable progress in electrode surface modification, promotes the selectivity of the biosensor, decreases the production cost and provides miniaturization. In the next years, advances in technology will provide low cost, sensitive, selective biosensors for drug analysis in drug formulations and biological samples.

Chemical reactivity and adsorption properties of pro-carbazine anti-cancer drug on gallium-doped nanotubes: a quantum chemical study

In this study, we propose new armchair single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) for stable adsorption, increasing drug delivery performance and decreasing side effects of pro-carbazine (Pro-CB) anti-cancer in the framework of B3LYP/6-31 g*/Lanl2DZ level of theory. Indeed, doping gallium (Ga) metal in SWNTs is naturally followed by changing of geometry, increasing dipole moment, and creating one site with high reactivity in order to better adsorption of the drug molecule. Chemical reactivity descriptors show that SWNTs and Pro-CB have electrophile and nucleophile roles in interaction, respectively. More importantly, high local and dual softness in Ga-doped SWNTs indicate improvement of drug adsorption. Parallel and perpendicular complexes result from their interaction in the N and the O sites. Negative values of binding energy (E_bind) show that composed complexes are energetically stable especially in the O site in comparison with the N site. On the other hand, more negative value of the E_bind in SWCNTs shows that these nanotubes are more effective for drug adsorption than their boron nitride counterparts. Graphical abstract The Ga dopping results in reducing of HOMO-LUMO gap and increasing charge transfer between SWNTs and Pro-CB, and formation better complex, especially SWCNT.

Chemical reactivity and adsorption properties of pro-carbazine anti-cancer drug on gallium-doped nanotubes: a quantum chemical study

In this study, we propose new armchair single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) for stable adsorption, increasing drug delivery performance and decreasing side effects of pro-carbazine (Pro-CB) anti-cancer in the framework of B3LYP/6-31 g*/Lanl2DZ level of theory. Indeed, doping gallium (Ga) metal in SWNTs is naturally followed by changing of geometry, increasing dipole moment, and creating one site with high reactivity in order to better adsorption of the drug molecule. Chemical reactivity descriptors show that SWNTs and Pro-CB have electrophile and nucleophile roles in interaction, respectively. More importantly, high local and dual softness in Ga-doped SWNTs indicate improvement of drug adsorption. Parallel and perpendicular complexes result from their interaction in the N and the O sites. Negative values of binding energy (E_bind) show that composed complexes are energetically stable especially in the O site in comparison with the N site. On the other hand, more negative value of the E_bind in SWCNTs shows that these nanotubes are more effective for drug adsorption than their boron nitride counterparts. Graphical abstract The Ga dopping results in reducing of HOMO-LUMO gap and increasing charge transfer between SWNTs and Pro-CB, and formation better complex, especially SWCNT.

Modern Assay Techniques for Cancer Drugs: Electroanalytical and Liquid Chromatography Methods

In the past decades, patients who have chemotherapy treatment have considerably increased number. At this point, the development of rapid precise, and reliable methods are very important to analyze cancer drugs from their dosage forms, animals or human biological samples. Among all the analytical methods, electrochemical methods hold an important position with their unique properties such as specificity in the biological recognition process, fast response, and their reliability and do not need a pretreatment process. Chromatographic methods are also used in a wide range of analytical applications for the analyses of anticancer drugs. The power of chromatography comes from its ability to separate a mixture of analytes and determination of their concentrations. Chromatographic techniques can mainly be divided into gas, liquid, and supercritical fluid chromatography. In the frame of this information, this review is aimed to provide basic principles of electroanalytical and high-performance liquid chromatography methods for the analysis of cancer drugs. In addition, some selected applications for electrochemistry-related techniques and high-performance liquid chromatography, for the determination of anti-cancer pharmaceuticals published in the last five years are also discussed.

Electrochemical carbon based nanosensors: A promising tool in pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis

Nanotechnology has become very popular in the sensor fields in recent times. It is thought that the utilization of such technologies, as well as the use of nanosized materials, could well have beneficial effects for the performance of sensors. Nano-sized materials have been shown to have a number of novel and interesting physical and chemical properties. Low-dimensional nanometer-sized materials and systems have defined a new research area in condensed-matter physics within past decades. Apart from the aforesaid categories of materials, there exist various materials of different types for fabricating nanosensors. Carbon is called as a unique element, due to its magnificent applications in many areas. Carbon is an astonishing element that can be found many forms including graphite, diamond, fullerenes, and graphene. This review provides an overview of some of the important and recent developments brought about by the application of carbon based nanostructures to nanotechnology for both chemical and biological sensor development and their application in pharmaceutical and biomedical area.

Simultaneous monitoring of the drug release and antitumor effect of a novel drug delivery system-MWCNTs/DOX/TC

Monitoring drug release and therapeutic efficacy is crucial for developing drug delivery systems. Our preliminary study demonstrated that, as compared with pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), transactivator of transcription (TAT)-chitosan functionalized MWCNTs (MWCNTs-TC) were a more promising candidate for drug delivery in cancer therapy. In the present study, a MWCNTs/TC-based drug delivery system was developed for an anticancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX). The drug loading and in vitro release profiles, cellular uptake and cytotoxicity were assessed. More importantly, the in vivo drug release and antitumor effect of MWCNTs/DOX/TC were evaluated by noninvasive fluorescence and bioluminescence imaging. It was demonstrated that MWCNTs/DOX/TC can be efficiently taken up by BEL-7402 hepatoma cells. The release of DOX from MWCNTs/DOX/TC was faster under lower pH condition, which was beneficial for intrcellular drug release. The in vivo release process of DOX and antitumor effect in animal model were monitored simultaneously by noninvasive fluorescence and luminescence imaging, which demonstrated the application potential of MWCNTs/DOX/TC for cancer therapy.

Carbon nanotubes part I: preparation of a novel and versatile drug-delivery vehicle

INTRODUCTION

It is 23 years since carbon allotrope known as carbon nanotubes (CNT) was discovered by Iijima, who described them as "rolled graphite sheets inserted into each other". Since then, CNTs have been studied in nanoelectronic devices. However, CNTs also possess the versatility to act as drug- and gene-delivery vehicles.

AREAS COVERED

This review covers the synthesis, purification and functionalization of CNTs. Arc discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition are the principle synthesis methods. Non-covalent functionalization relies on attachment of biomolecules by coating the CNT with surfactants, synthetic polymers and biopolymers. Covalent functionalization often involves the initial introduction of carboxylic acids or amine groups, diazonium addition, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition or reductive alkylation. The aim is to produce functional groups to attach the active cargo.

EXPERT OPINION

In this review, the feasibility of CNT being used as a drug-delivery vehicle is explored. The molecular composition of CNT is extremely hydrophobic and highly aggregation-prone. Therefore, most of the efforts towards drug delivery has centered on chemical functionalization, which is usually divided in two categories; non-covalent and covalent. The biomedical applications of CNT are growing apace, and new drug-delivery technologies play a major role in these efforts.