Development and validation of UHPLC-DAD method for the determination of cholesteryl-hexahydrophthaloyl-5-fluorouracil in lipid nanoemulsion

Ultrasensitive and Specific Detection of Anticancer Drug 5-Fluorouracil in Blood Samples by a Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)-Based Lateral Flow Immunochromatographic Assay

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is an effective anticancer drug widely used in the world. To improve therapy efficiency and reduce side effects, it is very important to frequently detect the concentration of 5-FU in blood samples of patients. In this work, a new type of lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA) based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for ultrasensitive and specific detection of 5-FU in blood samples was developed. Au@Ag/Au nanoparticles (NPs) employing Au particles as the core and Ag/Au alloy as the shell were synthesized, characterized and used as the substrate in SERS-LFIA due to their high SERS enhancement and biocompatibility. The immunoprobe was made in the form of AuMBA@Ag/Au-Ab in which mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA, a common Raman active reporter) was embedded in the core-shell layer and the monoclonal antibody (mAb) against 5-FU was immobilized on the surface. The performance of SERS-LFIA was similar to that in colloidal gold based-LFIA, and the entire assay time was within 20 min. According to the color intensity on the testing (T) lines of LFIA strips visualized by eyes, the contents of 5-FU in the samples could be qualitatively or semi-quantitatively identified. Furthermore, by measuring the characteristic Raman intensities of MBA on T lines, quantitative detection of 5-FU in the samples were achieved. The IC50 and limit of detection (LOD) of the LFIA for 5-FU were found to be 20.9 pg mL-1 and 4.4 pg mL-1, respectively. There was no cross-reactivity (CR) of the LFIA with nine relative compounds, and the CR with cytosine, tegafur and carmofur were less than 4.5%. The recoveries of 5-FU from spiked blood samples were in the range of 78.6~86.4% with the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.69~4.42%. Five blood samples containing 5-FU collected from the Cancer Hospital were measured by SERS-LFIA, and the results were confirmed by LC-MS/MS. It was proven that the proposed method was able to simply and rapidly detect 5-FU in blood samples with high sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and precision.

Development of a highly sensitive and specific monoclonal antibody-based ELISA coupled with immuno-affinity extraction for the detection of anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil in blood samples

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is an effective anticancer drug widely used in cancer treatment. In this study, two 5-FU derivatives containing a spacer arm with the carboxylic group at the end were synthesized, which were linked to the carrier proteins to form 5-FU-protein conjugates used as the immunogens for the production of monoclonal antibody (mAb). Based on the produced mAb, the highly sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for 5-FU detection was established. The IC₅₀ and LOD values of the assay were found to be 19.5 ng mL^-1 and 0.5 ng mL^-1, respectively. There was no cross-reactivity (CR) of the ELISA with cytosine, thymine and uracil, which avoided the interference from inherent pyrimidines. The CR values of the assay with three substitutes of 5-FU (tegafur, 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine, carmofur) were within 9.7%-17.6%. The produced mAb was also applied in sample extraction. The immuno-affinity column capable specific capturing 5-FU was prepared by immobilizing the mAb on Sepharose-4B gel and filling into a SPE column. The recoveries of 5-FU in spiked samples measured by ELISA were 72.4%-90.7% with RSD of 3.6%-8.3%. Five blood samples collected from patients were extracted by immuno-affinity column, then measured by ELISA and confirmed by HPLC-MS/MS. There was a good correlation between HPLC-MS/MS and ELISA. It is demonstrated that the developed ELISA combined with immuno-affinity extraction can be a powerful alternative method for the detection of 5-FU in blood samples.

Cholesterol-Conjugate as a New Strategy to Improve the Cytotoxic Effect of 5-Fluorouracil on Liver Cancer: Impact of Liposomal Composition

Purpose:

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common liver malignancy, which has a low survival rate of all cancers. 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is clinically recognized to treat HCC. However, the success of this therapy is highly limited due to rapid clearance and non- selective distribution. Cholesterol- conjugate (5-FUC) loaded liposomes proposed to facilitate the transport of 5-FUC into tumor cells via Low-Density Lipoprotein receptor (LDL receptor) that overexpressed in HCC. Thus, the aim of this study was to use 5-FUC loaded liposome as a promising strategy to combat HCC and improve the response of HCC to chemotherapy.

Methods:

5-FUC and 5-FU loaded liposomes were optimized based on Cholesterol (CHO) ratio and type of phospholipid to achieve a potential effect on HCC. Liposomes were prepared by the thin-film hydration method, and evaluated in terms of particle size, polydispersity, zeta potential, Entrapment Efficiency (EE), morphology, drug release and cytotoxicity.

Results:

The obtained liposomes had a suitable nano-range particle size with negative zeta potential, and acceptable EE%. In vitro drug release of 5-FUC loaded liposomes showed a lower cumulative release over 24 h as compared to 5-FU loaded liposomes. 5-FUC loaded liposomes exhibited a higher in vitro cytotoxic effect as compared to the free drug and 5-FU loaded liposomes against HepG2 cell lines after 48 h via MTT assay.

Conclusion:

These results concluded that 5-FUC loaded liposomes could be used as an alternative tactic to increase the therapeutic index of 5-FU and pave the way for potential clinical applications.

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.