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(E)-N,N-dimethyl-4-oxo-4-(4-(pyridin-4-yl)phenyl)but-2-enamide hydrochloride (IMB-YH-4py5-2H) is a novel Protein Kinase B (PknB) inhibitor with potent activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. In the present study, a sensitive and specific liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to determine IMB-YH-4py5-2H in rat plasma. Sample pretreatment was achieved by liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate, and separation was performed on an XTerra MS C18 column (2.1×50 mm, 3.5 μm) with gradient elution (methanol and 0.1% formic acid) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. Detection was performed in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Linear calibration curves were obtained over a concentration range of 1-100 ng/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were lower than 8.46%, and the accuracies ranged from -8.71% to 12.36% at all quality control levels. The extraction recoveries were approximately 70%, and the matrix effects were negligible. All quality control samples were stable under different storage conditions. The validated method was successfully applied to a preclinical pharmacokinetic study in Sprague-Dawley rats. IMB-YH-4py5-2H demonstrated improved pharmacokinetic properties (higher exposure level) compared with its leading compound. IMB-YH-4py5-2H was also distributed throughout the lung pronouncedly, especially inside alveolar macrophages, indicating its effectiveness against lower respiratory infections.

Pharmacological efficacy is based on the drug concentration in target tissues, which usually cannot be represented by the plasma concentration. The purpose of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetic characteristics of gemifloxacin in plasma and skeletal muscle and evaluate its tissue penetration in both healthy and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)-infected rats. A microdialysis (MD) combined with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to determine free gemifloxacin concentrations in rat plasma and skeletal muscle simultaneously. The in vivo recoveries of MD were 23.21% ± 3.42% for skeletal muscle and 20.62% ± 3.19% for plasma, and were concentration independent. We provided evidence that the method developed here meets FDA requirements. Additionally, this method was successfully applied to the determination of free gemifloxacin in rats. Muscle and blood dialysates were collected after an 18 mg/kg intravenous bolus dose. The mean areas under the concentration-time curves (AUCs) from 0 to 9 h for skeletal muscle and plasma were 3641.50 ± 915.65 h*ng/mL and 7068.32 ± 1964.19 h*ng/mL in MRSA-infected rats and 3774.72 ± 700.36 h*ng/mL and 6927.49 ± 1714.86 h*ng/mL in healthy rats, respectively. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in gemifloxacin exposure between healthy rats and MRSA-infected rats for plasma or muscle. The low ratio of AUC0-9 muscle to AUC0-9 plasma suggested lower drug exposure in skeletal muscle than in plasma for both healthy and MRSA-infected rats. Our study suggested that the administration of gemifloxacin according to drug levels in plasma to treat local infection is unreasonable and might result in an inadequate dose regimen.

Due to the extreme inaccessibility of fetal human inner ear tissue, defining of the microRNAs (miRNAs) that regulate development of the inner ear has relied on animal tissue. In the present study, we performed the first miRNA sequencing of otic precursors in human specimens. Using HTG miRNA Whole Transcriptome assays, we examined miRNA expression in the cochleovestibular ganglion (CVG), neural crest (NC), and otic vesicle (OV) from paraffin embedded (FFPE) human specimens in the Carnegie developmental stages 13-15. We found that in human embryonic tissues, there are different patterns of miRNA expression in the CVG, NC and OV. In particular, members of the miR-183 family (miR-96, miR-182, and miR-183) are differentially expressed in the CVG compared to NC and OV at Carnegie developmental stage 13. We further identified transcription factors that are differentially targeted in the CVG compared to the other tissues from stages 13-15, and we performed gene set enrichment analyses to determine differentially regulated pathways that are relevant to CVG development in humans. These findings not only provide insight into the mechanisms governing the development of the human inner ear, but also identify potential signaling pathways for promoting regeneration of the spiral ganglion and other components of the inner ear.

As is well-known, the S2 molecule is a ubiquitous intermediate in the combustion, atmosphere, and interstellar space. The six low-lying bound states of S2 have been characterized via photoelectron velocity map imaging and a high-level multi-reference configuration interaction method with the Davidson correction. Spectroscopic constants have been extracted by fitting the potential energy curves extrapolated to the complete basis set limit with a series of Dunning's correlation-consistent basis sets: aug-cc-pV(Q, 5)Z. The calculated spectroscopic parameters well reproduce the experimental results in this work. On the basis of the theoretical calculations, Franck-Condon simulations are performed to assign six adjacent electronic states, especially for three higher overlapping electronic states (c1Σu−, A′3Δu, and A3Σu+). The dissociation energy De of the S2− is evaluated to be 4.111 (4) eV in this work, in agreement with the theoretical prediction (4.056 eV). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covalent and noncovalent interactions dominate most compounds in the condensed phase and gas phase. For a classical diatomic molecule CO, it is usually regarded as a triple-bond system with one dative bond. In this work, the photoelectron velocity-map imaging spectra of the CS and PbS anions were first measured. The two interactions have been intuitively understood by a comparative investigation of electrostatic potential (ESP) and bond features in CO, CS, and PbS. It is suggested that both electrostatic and dative covalent interactions compete in CO molecules, while dative covalent interaction prevails in CS molecules and electrostatic interaction dominates in PbS molecules. As a consequence, CO has a very small dipole moment (∼0.1 D) compared to the large dipole moment in CS (>1.8 D) and PbS (>4 D). It is indicated that the electron affinity value increases with the increasing dipole moment in the order of CO < CS < PbS. In addition, intriguing ESP with negative bond-ends and positive bond-cylindrical-surface in CO is also revealed by comparing with that in CS and PbS. In the latter, the two molecules present opposite ESP maps. Molecular orbital analyses indicate surprising participation of Pb 5d orbitals in the Pb–S chemical bonding although Pb belongs to main-group elements. Further bond analyses using electron localization function, natural resonance theory, and bond order methods suggest that covalence is dominant in CS and ionicity is a major component in PbS, but somewhere in between for CO molecules. By a comparative study in this work, the CS molecule is also revealed as a promising ligand molecule for the transition-metal coordination chemical synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]