Quantitative evaluation of berberine subcellular distribution and cellular accumulation in non-small cell lung cancer cells by UPLC–MS/MS

A Ratiometric Fluorescence Detection Method for Berberine Using Triplex-Containing DNA-Templated Silver Nanoclusters

Berberine (BBR), as a natural isoquinoline alkaloid, has demonstrated various pharmacological activities, and is widely applied in the treatment of diseases. The quantitative analysis of BBR is important for pharmacological studies and clinical applications. In this work, utilizing the specific interaction between BBR and triplex DNA, a sensitive and selective fluorescent detecting method was established with DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA-AgNCs). After binding with the triplex structure in the template of DNA-AgNCs, BBR quenched the fluorescence of DNA-AgNCs and formed BBR-triplex complex with yellow-green fluorescence. The ratiometric fluorescence signal showed a linear relationship with BBR concentration in a range from 10 nM to 1000 nM, with a detection limit of 10 nM. Our method exhibited excellent sensitivity and selectivity, and was further applied in BBR detection in real samples.

Serum albumin mitigated perfluorooctane sulfonate-induced cytotoxicity by affecting the cellular responses

During the wide applications of perfluorinated materials such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in commercial and industrial products, the potential toxicity of these engineered compounds has attracted more and more attention. As a typical environmental pollutant, PFOS could preferentially bind to albumin protein in vivo. However, the role of protein-PFOS interactions in the cytotoxicity of PFOS was not stressed enough. Herein, we investigated the interactions of PFOS with human serum albumin (HSA, the most abundant protein in human plasma) using both experimental and theoretical approaches. It was demonstrated that PFOS could mainly bind to the Sudlow site I of HSA to generate HSA-PFOS complex through hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces. Toxicity assays with endothelial cells illustrated that the binding of HSA could significantly attenuate the intracellular uptake and subcellular distribution of PFOS, thereby inhibiting the formation of reactive oxygen species and toxicity for those HSA-bound PFOS. Similarly, the presence of fetal bovine serum in the cell culture media greatly reduced PFOS-caused cytotoxicity. Conclusively, our study reveals that the binding of albumin protein to PFOS could mitigate its toxicity by the modulation of cellular responses. The formation of protein-complexed contaminants would significantly reduce the bioavailability of these chemicals and subsequently mitigate their environmental toxicology to the human health.

Pharmacotherapeutic values of berberine: A Chinese herbal medicine for the human cancer management

Berberine (BBR), a traditional Chinese phytomedicine extracted from various parts of Berberis plants, is an isoquinoline alkaloid used for centuries to treat diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and so forth. It has recently received immense attention worldwide to treat cancer due to its potent pro-apoptotic, antiproliferative, and anti-inflammatory properties. BBR efficiently induces tumor apoptosis, replicative quiescence and abrogates cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, tumor neovascularization, and metastasis by modulating diverse molecular and cell signaling pathways. Furthermore, BBR could also reverse drug resistance, make tumor cells sensitive to current cancer treatment and significantly minimize the harmful side effects of cytotoxic therapies. This review comprehensively analyzed the pharmacological effects of BBR against the development, growth, progression, metastasis, and therapy resistance in wide varieties of cancer. Also, it critically discusses the significant limitations behind the development of BBR into pharmaceuticals to treat cancer and the future research directions to overcome these limitations.

Tetraphenylethylene sulfonate derivative as turn-on fluorescent sensor for berberine chloride detection in aqueous solution

A negatively-charged tetraphenylethylene derivative (TPE-SE) was designed and synthesized as turn-on fluorescent sensor for berberine chloride (BBC) detection in aqueous solution. The fluorescent property and detection mechanism were elucidated by UV-vis absorption spectra, photoluminescence spectra, dynamic light scattering experiments. The results reveal that the BBC can lead to aggregation-induced emission of TPE-SE due to the electrostatic interactions, endowing TPE-SE with excellent turn-on detecting ability, high selectivity and sensitivity to BBC. The detection limit is as low as 6.58 × 10^-6M. These results should be applicable to fabricate special turn-on fluorescent sensors towards various antibiotics, and it is crucially important for achieving reasonable control and intake of small biomolecules.

Evaluation of lipid metabolism imbalance in HIV-infected patients with metabolic disorders using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and highly active antiretroviral therapy use are associated with the disruption of lipid and glucose metabolism. Herein, a sensitive and robust high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) and acylcarnitines (ACs) in human blood serum was developed and validated to investigate them as markers of metabolic disorders in HIV-infected patients. Under optimal extraction and detection conditions, the lower limits of quantification reached 5 ng/mL (LPCs) and 0.1 ng/mL (ACs), and precision and accuracy for both intra- and inter-day analyses were generally below 15%. Serum samples were stable for at least six months when stored at - 80 °C and for at least 12 h when stored at 4 °C or 25 °C. We investigated inter-group differences and associations between the biomarkers and observed a particular volatilitytrend of LPCs and ACs for HIV-infected patients with metabolic disorders. Thus, the developed method can be used for the rapid and sensitive quantitation of LPCs and ACs in vivo to further appraise the process of HIV infection, evaluate interveningmeasures, conduct mechanistic investigations, and further study the utility of LPCs and ACs as biomarkers of HIV infection coupled with metabolic disorders.

Fetal bovine serum attenuating perfluorooctanoic acid-inducing toxicity to multiple human cell lines via albumin binding

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), as a typical emerging organic pollutant, can interact with serum albumin. However, it remains to characterize the binding of PFOA with serum albumin and to address the role of this interaction in related toxic effects. We aimed to characterize the interaction between PFOA and albumin for understanding the effects of this interaction on the uptake, distribution, and toxicity of PFOA in human cells. The results showed that viable cell count was significantly enhanced by addition of fetabl bovine serum (FBS) into cell culture medium with 300 μM PFOA treatment. PFOA mainly existed as complexed with FBS, at FBS concentration > 10%, which substantially reduced the absorption efficiency of all cell lines to PFOA. The majority of PFOA was accumulated in the cytosolic fraction, followed by nuclei, and mitochondria. Conclusively, our study suggests that the complexation of organic contaminants with proteins might mitigate their toxicity by reducing cellular uptake.

Recent Advances on Drug Analyses Using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatographic Techniques and their Application to the Biological Samples

Introduction:

Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatographic (UPLC) method enables analyst to establish an analysis at higher pressure than High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) method towards liquid chromatographic methods. UPLC method provides the opportunity to study a higher pressure compared to HPLC, and therefore smaller column in terms of particle size and internal diameter are generally used in drug analysis. The UPLC method has attracted gradually due to its advantages such as short analysis time, the small amount of waste reagents and the significant savings in the cost of their destruction process. In this review, the recent selected studies related to the UPLC method and its method validation are summarized. The drug analyses and the results of the studies which were investigated by UPLC method, with certain parameters from literature are presented.

Background:

Quantitative determination of drug active substances by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) from Liquid Chromatography (LC) methods has been carried out since the 1970's with the use of standard analytical LC methods. In today's conditions, rapid and very fast even ultra-fast, flow rates are achieved compared to conventional HPLC due to shortening analysis times, increasing method efficiency and resolution, reducing sample volume (and hence injection volume), reducing waste mobile phase. Using smaller particles, the speed and peak capacity are expanding to new limit and this technology is named as Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography. In recent years, as a general trend in liquid chromatography, ultra-performance liquid chromatography has taken the place of HPLC methods. The time of analysis was for several minutes, now with a total analysis time of around 1-2 minutes. The benefits of transferring HPLC to UPLC are much better understood when considering the thousands of analyzes performed for each active substance, in order to reduce the cost of analytical laboratories where relevant analysis of drug active substances are performed without lowering the cost of research and development activities.

Methods:

The German Chemist Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, proposed the use of reactive impregnated filter paper for the identification of dyestuffs in 1855 and at that time the first chromatographic method in which a liquid mobile phase was used, was reviewed. Christian Friedrich Chönbein, who reported that the substances were dragged at different speeds in the filter paper due to capillary effect, was followed by the Russian botanist Mikhail S. Tswet, who planted studies on color pigment in 1906. Tswet observes the color separations of many plant pigments, such as chlorophyll and xanthophyll when he passes the plant pigment extract isolated from plant through the powder CaCO3 that he filled in the glass column. This method based on color separation gives the name of "chromatographie" chromatography by using the words "chroma" meaning "Latin" and "graphein" meaning writing.

Results and Conclusion:

Because the UPLC method can be run smoothly at higher pressures than the HPLC method, it offers the possibility of analyzing using much smaller column sizes and column diameters. Moreover, UPLC method has advantages, such as short analysis time, the small amount of waste reagents and the significant savings in the cost of their destruction process. The use of the UPLC method especially analyses in biological samples such as human plasma, brain sample, rat plasma, etc. increasingly time-consuming due to the fact that the analysis time is very short compared to the HPLC, because of the small amount of waste analytes and the considerable savings in their cost.

Interplay of Efflux Transporters with Glucuronidation and Its Impact on Subcellular Aglycone and Glucuronide Disposition: A Case Study with Kaempferol

Glucuronidation is a major process of drug metabolism and elimination that generally governs drug efficacy and toxicity. Publications have demonstrated that efflux transporters control intracellular glucuronidation metabolism. However, it is still unclear whether and how efflux transporters interact with UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) in subcellular organelles. In this study, kaempferol, a model fluorescent flavonoid, was used to investigate the interplay of glucuronidation with transport at the subcellular level. Human recombinant UGTs and microsomes were utilized to characterize the in vitro glucuronidation kinetics of kaempferol. The inhibition of UGTs and efflux transporters on the subcellular disposition of kaempferol were determined visually and quantitatively in Caco-2/TC7 cells. The knockout of transporters on the subcellular accumulation of kaempferol in liver and intestine were evaluated visually. ROS and Nrf2 were assayed to evaluate the pharmacological activities of kaempferol. The results showed that UGT1A9 is the primary enzyme responsible for kaempferol glucuronidation. Visual and quantitative data showed that the UGT1A9 inhibitor carvacrol caused a significant rise in subcellular aglycone and reduction in subcellular glucuronides of kaempferol. The inhibition and knockout of transporters, such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp), breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), and multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs), exhibited a marked increase in subcellular kaempferol and decrease in its subcellular glucuronides. Correspondingly, inhibition of UGT1A9 and transporters led to increased kaempferol and, consequently, a significantly enhanced ROS scavenging efficiency and nuclear translocation of Nrf2. In conclusion, the interplay of efflux transporters (P-gp, BCRP, and MRPs) and UGTs govern the subcellular exposure and corresponding pharmacological activity of kaempferol.

A simple, fast, and sensitive colorimetric assay for visual detection of berberine in human plasma by NaHSO4-optimized gold nanoparticles

Herein, we report a simple, fast and sensitive colorimetric visualization of berberine in human plasma using NaHSO₄-optimized gold nanoparticles. The LOD in human plasma is 0.24 μg mL⁻¹by the naked eye and 0.06 μg mL⁻¹by UV-vis spectroscopy.