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Mizolastine is an antihistamine drug that is commonly used for treatment of chronic urticaria and allergic rhinitis. In this study, a facile, rapid, and sustainable fluorimetric method was established for the estimation of mizolastine in pharmaceutical and biological matrices for the first time. The approach methodology relied on the direct assessment of mizolastine's intrinsic fluorescence at 313 nm after excitation at 272 nm. This intrinsic fluorescence, stemming from the benzimidazole fluorophore moiety in mizolastine structure, serves as a distinctive marker for its precise quantification in the spiked human plasma and pharmaceutical formulations with high %recovery. The method exhibits reasonable sensitivity with lower limits of detection and quantification of 5.4 and 16.6 ng mL -1 , respectively, across a concentration range of 25.0-2000.0 and 50-1000 ng mL -1 for the standard mizolastine analysis and mizolastine assay in the plasma sample, respectively. Moreover, the established method was applied to assess tablet content uniformity and mizolastine assay in plasma samples with high recoveries (98.50%-100.20%). Such applications underscore the method's potential applicability within quality control laboratories, preventing the need for sample preparation or laborious extraction steps. Finally, the method's sustainability and practicality were confirmed by applying different greenness and whiteness metrics, yielding excellent results., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

A quick, simple, sensitive, efficient and stability-indicating reverse-phase ultraperformance liquid chromatographic method for the estimation of propylparaben, methylparaben and sodium benzoate in a pharmaceutical liquid oral formulation was developed. A Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C 18 , 50 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm i.d. column was used to perform chromatographic separation with a 0.1% perchloric acid mobile phase used as solvent A and a mixture of 0.1 % perchloric acid and methanol in the ratio 20:80 (v/v), respectively, as solvent B. The experiments were carried out at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min and the detection wavelength was 240 nm. The compartment temperature of the column was set at 40°C and the injection volume was set at 2 μl. The main aim of the research was to develop a single UPLC assay method for promethazine (active ingredient) and preservatives in the oral solution of promethazine HCl and dextromethorphan HBr that contains promethazine (active ingredient) and methylparaben, propylparaben and sodium benzoate (preservatives). An assay of dextromethorphan HBr was developed and validated by another HPLC method. The drug and preservatives were eluted at retention times of 19.3 min for promethazine HCl, 9.3 min for methylparaben, 18.9 min for propylparaben and 8.9 min for sodium benzoate. Validation of the developed method was carried out as stated by the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines ICH Q2B and under USP<1225>. The analytical parameters verified specificity/selectivity, linearity, accuracy, ruggedness and robustness. The linearity ranges of promethazine HCL, methylparaben, propylparaben and sodium benzoate were 10-100, 10-80, 1.0-8.0 and 10-80 μg/ml, respectively, with a correlation coefficient of active ingredients and preservatives of 1.00. Percentage recoveries of promethazine, propylparaben, methylparaben, and sodium benzoate were 100.0-100.2, 99.0-100.3, 99.5-98.0 and 99.0-100.0%. The validated analytical method proves that the method is specific, precise, linear, accurate, sensitive, rugged and stable, indicating the quantification of the active ingredient and all preservatives in liquid oral formulations., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-field quadrupole Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry was used for the separation and determination of 20 antihistamines, and a dispersive micro solid-phase extraction procedure using high-performance absorbing material was developed as a sample preparation strategy for extracting 20 antihistamines from milk. Instrument conditions and key parameters influencing extraction efficiency were investigated to obtain an optimized method. The limit of detection for 20 antihistamines in milk using this method is 0.05 µg/L to 1.0 µg/L. Recoveries are between 80.7 % and 108.3 %, and the relative standard deviation is less than 15 %. It is suitable for confirmatory monitoring and quantitative analysis of 20 antihistamines in milk. The results show that antihistamines in milk may be noteworthy issues for human health and environmental pollution., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In this work, two validated approaches were used for estimating hydroxyzine HCl for the first time using resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) and spectrofluorimetric techniques. The suggested approaches relied on forming an association complex between hydroxyzine HCl and 2,4,5,7-tetraiodofluorescein (erythrosin B) reagent in an acidic media. The quenching in the fluorescence intensity of 2,4,5,7-tetraiodofluorescein by hydroxyzine at 551.5 nm (excitation = 527.5 nm) was used for determining the studied drug by the spectrofluorimetric technique. The RRS approach is based on amplifying the RRS spectrum at 348 nm upon the interaction of hydroxyzine HCl with 2,4,5,7-tetraiodofluorescein. The spectrofluorimetric methodology and the RRS methodology produced linear results within ranges of 0.15-1.5 μg ml -1 and 0.1-1.2 μg ml -1 , respectively. LOD values for these methods were determined to be 0.047 μg ml -1 and 0.033 μg ml -1 , respectively. The content of hydroxyzine HCl in its pharmaceutical tablet was estimated using the developed procedures with acceptable recoveries. Additionally, the application of four greenness and whiteness algorithms shows that they are superior to the previously reported method in terms of sustainability, economics, analytical performance, and practicality., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Antihistamines relieve allergic symptoms by inhibiting the action of histamine. Further understanding of antihistamine transmembrane mechanisms and optimizing the selectivity and real-time monitoring capabilities of drug sensors is necessary. In this study, a micrometer liquid/liquid (L/L) interfacial sensor has served as a biomimetic membrane to investigate the mechanism of interfacial transfer of five antihistamines, i.e., clemastine (CLE), cyproheptadine (CYP), epinastine (EPI), desloratadine (DSL), and cetirizine (CET), and realize the real-time determinations. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques have been used to uncover the electrochemical transfer behavior of the five antihistamines at the L/L interface. Additionally, finite element simulations (FEMs) have been employed to reveal the thermodynamics and kinetics of the process. Visualization of antihistamine partitioning in two phases at different pH values can be realized by ion partition diagrams (IPDs). The IPDs also reveal the transfer mechanism at the L/L interface and provide effective lipophilicity at different pH values. Real-time determinations of these antihistamines have been achieved through potentiostatic chronoamperometry ( I - t ), exhibiting good selectivity with the addition of nine common organic or inorganic compounds in living organisms and revealing the potential for in vivo pharmacokinetics. Besides providing a satisfactory surrogate for studying the transmembrane mechanism of antihistamines, this work also sheds light on micro- and nano L/L interfacial sensors for in vivo analysis of pharmacokinetics at a single-cell or single-organelle level.

The investigation of pharmaceuticals as emerging contaminants in marine biota has been insufficient. In this study, we examined the presence of 51 pharmaceuticals in edible oysters along the coasts of the East and South China Seas. Only nine pharmaceuticals were detected. The mean concentrations of all measured pharmaceuticals in oysters per site ranged from 0.804 to 15.1 ng g -1 of dry weight, with antihistamines being the most common. Brompheniramine and promethazine were identified in biota samples for the first time. Although no significant health risks to humans were identified through consumption of oysters, 100-1000 times higher health risks were observed for wildlife like water birds, seasnails, and starfishes. Specifically, sea snails that primarily feed on oysters were found to be at risk of exposure to ciprofloxacin, brompheniramine, and promethazine. These high risks could be attributed to the monotonous diet habits and relatively limited food sources of these organisms. Furthermore, taking chirality into consideration, chlorpheniramine in the oysters was enriched by the S -enantiomer, with a relative potency 1.1-1.3 times higher when chlorpheniramine was considered as a racemate. Overall, this study highlights the prevalence of antihistamines in seafood and underscores the importance of studying enantioselectivities of pharmaceuticals in health risk assessments.

Commonly used antihistamines and other cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs) are emerging as putative cancer drugs. Their unique chemical structure enables CADs to accumulate rapidly inside lysosomes, where they increase lysosomal pH, alter lysosomal lipid metabolism, and eventually cause lysosomal membrane permeabilization. Here, we show that CAD-induced rapid elevation in lysosomal pH is caused by a lysosomal H + efflux that requires P2RX4-mediated lysosomal Ca 2+ release and precedes the lysosomal membrane permeabilization. The subsequent cytosolic acidification triggers the dephosphorylation, lysosomal translocation, and inactivation of the oncogenic signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) transcription factor. Moreover, CAD-induced lysosomal H + efflux sensitizes cancer cells to apoptosis induced by STAT3 inhibition and acts synergistically with STAT3 inhibition in restricting the tumor growth of A549 non-small cell lung carcinoma xenografts. These findings identify lysosomal H + efflux and STAT3 inhibition as anticancer mechanisms of CADs and reinforce the repurposing of safe and inexpensive CADs as cancer drugs with a drug combination strategy., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The innovation of novel and proficient nanostructured materials for the precise level determination of pharmaceuticals in biological fluids is quite crucial to the researchers. With this in mind, we synthesized iron molybdate nanoplates (Fe 2 (MoO 4 ) 3 ; FeMo NPs) via simple ultrasonic-assisted technique (70 kHz with a power of 100 W). The FeMo NPs were used as the efficient electrocatalyst for electrochemical oxidation of first-generation antihistamine drug- Promethazine hydrochloride (PMH). The as-synthesized FeMo NPs were characterized and confirmed by various characterization techniques such as XRD, Raman, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDX and Elemental mapping analysis and electron impedance spectroscopy (EIS). In addition, the electrochemical characteristic features of FeMo NPs were scrutinized by electrochemical techniques like cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry technique (DPV). Interestingly, the developed FeMo NPs modified glassy carbon electrode (FeMo NPs/GCE) discloses higher peak current with lesser anodic potential on comparing to bare GCE including wider linear range (0.01-68.65 µM), lower detection limit (0.01 µM) and greater sensitivity (0.97 µAµM -1 cm -2 ). Moreover, the as-synthesized FeMo NPs applied for selectivity, reproducibility, repeatability and storage ability to investigate the practical viability. In the presence of interfering species like cationic, anionic and biological samples, the oxidation peak current response doesn't cause any variation results disclose good selectivity towards the detection of PMH. Additionally, the practical feasibility of the FeMo NPs/GCE was tested by real samples like, commercial tablet (Phenergan 25 mg Tablets) and lake water samples which give satisfactory recovery results. All the above consequences made clear that the proposed sensor FeMo NPs/GCE exhibits excellent electrochemical behavior for electrochemical determination towards oxidation of antihistamine drug PMH., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A highly sensitive and selective method of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) spectra was developed for the detection of three antihistamine drugs, including pyrilamine (PY), carbinoxamine (CAR) and tripelennamine (TRI). The three antihistamines were separated by a C18 column. The mobile phase contained 25% acetonitrile (ACN) and 75% phosphate buffered solution (pH 3.2) with the flow rate of 0.4 ml min -1 . In medium of Britton-Robinson (BR) buffer solution (pH 4.6), the PY, CAR and TRI separated by HPLC and then reacted with Erythrosine B (EryB), forming 1:1 ion-association complexes, which led to significant signal enhancement of RRS spectra. The RRS spectra was detected at the wavelength λ ex =λ em = 370 nm. The calibration curves of PY, CAR and TRI were linear in the range from 0.02 to 25 μg ml -1 , and the detection limit [signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) = 3] were 3.38, 4.48 and 5.50 ng ml -1 , respectively. In addition, under the optimum experiment condition, the reaction mechanism and the reasons for RRS enhancement were investigated in this work. The developed method was applied to the simultaneous detection of three antihistamines in water samples with satisfying results., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Systematic sampling and analysis of wastewater has become an important tool for monitoring consumption of drugs and other substances, and has been proposed as a method to evaluate aspects of population health using endogenous biomarkers. 1,4‑methylimidazoleacetic acid (MIAA) is an endogenous biomarker and metabolite of histamine turnover. Its urinary excretion is elevated in conditions such as mastocytosis, hay fever, hives, food allergies and anaphylaxis. The aim of this study was to develop and apply methods for MIAA in wastewater and compare its occurrence with antihistamine use in wastewater. Consecutive daily samples were collected from seven catchments serving populations from 3000 to 2 million and covering rural and urban communities during the 2016 Census in Australia. MIAA and the antihistamines (ranitidine, fexofenadine, cetirizine) were quantified consistently. Per capita excretion of MIAA (mg/d/capita) estimated from the WW concentrations were consistent with findings from previous clinical studies. We found significant positive correlations between loads of MIAA and fexofenadine (R 2  = 0.68, p < 0.0001) and cetirizine (R 2  = 0.25, p = 0.03) across the various catchments. Sewer reactor experiments on the degradation of MIAA and the antihistamines found that fexofenadine is stable for at least 24 h while MIAA, ranitidine and cetirizine are subject to degradation, and this should be considered in interpretations. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first wastewater study to introduce and monitor an endogenous metabolite of histamine, and the first study to monitor and relate proxies of disease and treatment of disease., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Antihistamines are excreted into breast milk in small amounts; however, there are no adequate published studies or data concerning their effects on newborns and safety during breastfeeding. Thus, the development of sensitive and specific methodologies for the determination of antihistamines in breast milk is critical. A simple and sensitive GC-MS method for the simultaneous determination of 11 antihistamines (diphenhydramine, orphenadrine, chlorpheniramine, dimethindene, meclozine, hydroxyzine, loratadine, desloratadine, cetirizine, rupatadine and ebastine) in breast milk was developed and validated. The antihistamines were solid-phase extracted and derivatized with acetic anhydride and n-propanol. Diazepam-d 5 , hydroxyzine-d 4 and cetirizine-d 8 were used as internal standards. Absolute recovery values for all analytes ranged from 70.5 to 120.0%, while the limits of detection and quantification for all analytes were 1.50 and 5.00 ng/mL, respectively. All calibration curves were linear (R 2  ≥ 0.990) within the range 5.00-1000.0 ng/mL. Accuracy (E r ) ranged between -7.6 and 7.0%, while precision (RSD) was <12% for all antihistamines. The developed method is suitable for the investigation of antihistamine-related clinical cases, as well as for pharmacokinetic and breastfeeding safety studies., (Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Hair can serve as a specimen for identifying past drug exposure. Segmental hair analysis may differentiate a single exposure from chronic use. Consequently, segmental hair analysis is useful for disclosing a single drug ingestion, as well as for determining repeated exposures in drug-facilitated crimes (DFCs). This paper presents an overview of toxicological investigations that have used hair analysis in DFC cases from 2009 to 2016 in Denmark. Hair concentrations were determined for 24 DFC-related drugs and metabolites, including benzodiazepines and other hypnotics, antihistamines, opioid analgesics, antipsychotics, barbiturates, and illicit drugs from DFC cases. Drug detection in hair in DFC cases following a single or few intakes of chlorprothixene, codeine, diphenhydramine, oxazepam, oxycodone, promethazine, and phenobarbital is reported for the first time in forensic toxicology. A literature review on concentrations in the published DFC-related hair cases and on concentrations in hair of these substances after single and multiple doses is included. These cases demonstrate the value of segmental hair analysis in DFCs and facilitate future interpretations of results., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Concentration of the global population is increasingly occurring in megacities and other developing regions, where access to medicines is increasing more rapidly than waste management systems are implemented. Because freshwater and coastal systems are influenced by wastewater effluent discharges of differential quality, exposures in aquatic systems must be considered. Here, we performed a global scanning assessment of antihistamines (AHs), a common class of medicines, in surface waters and effluents. Antihistamines were identified, literature occurrence and ecotoxicology data on AHs collated, therapeutic hazard values (THVs) calculated, and environmental exposure distributions (EEDs) of AHs compared to ecotoxicity thresholds and drug specific THVs to estimate hazards in surface waters and effluents. Literature searches of 62 different AHs in environmental matrices identified 111 unique occurrence publications of 24 specific AHs, largely from Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. However, the majority of surface water (63%) and effluent (85%) observations were from Europe and North America, which highlights relatively limited information from many regions, including developing countries and rapidly urbanizing areas in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Less than 10% of all observations were for estuarine or marine systems, though the majority of human populations reside close to coastal habitats. EED 5 th and 95 th centiles for all AHs were 2 and 212ng/L in surface water, 5 and 1308ng/L in effluent and 6 and 4287ng/L in influent, respectively. Unfortunately, global hazards and risks of AHs to non-target species remain poorly understood. However, loratadine observations in surface waters exceeded a THV without an uncertainty factor 40% of the time, indicating future research is needed to understand aquatic toxicology, hazards and risks associated with this AH. This unique global scanning study further illustrates the utility of global assessments of pharmaceuticals and other contaminants to identify chemicals requiring toxicology study and regions where environmental monitoring, assessment and management efforts appear limited and necessary., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In the present study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM) as intelligent methods based on absorption spectra in the range of 230-300nm have been used for determination of antihistamine decongestant contents. In the first step, one type of network (feed-forward back-propagation) from the artificial neural network with two different training algorithms, Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) and gradient descent with momentum and adaptive learning rate back-propagation (GDX) algorithm, were employed and their performance was evaluated. The performance of the LM algorithm was better than the GDX algorithm. In the second one, the radial basis network was utilized and results compared with the previous network. In the last one, the other intelligent method named least squares support vector machine was proposed to construct the antihistamine decongestant prediction model and the results were compared with two of the aforementioned networks. The values of the statistical parameters mean square error (MSE), Regression coefficient (R 2 ), correlation coefficient (r) and also mean recovery (%), relative standard deviation (RSD) used for selecting the best model between these methods. Moreover, the proposed methods were compared to the high- performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a reference method. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test at the 95% confidence level applied to the comparison results of suggested and reference methods that there were no significant differences between them., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Over the past decades, mass spectrometry technologies have been developed to obtain mass accuracies of one ppm or less. Of the newly developed technologies, quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF-MS) has emerged as being well suited to routine and high-throughput analyses of pharmaceuticals. Dietary supplements and functional foods have frequently been found to be contaminated with pharmaceuticals. In our continuous efforts to develop methodologies to protect public health against adulterated dietary supplements, we have constructed a mass spectral database for 21 H 1 -antihistamines encountered as adulterants by using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization (LC-ESI)/Q-TOF-MS, and have proposed their possible collision-induced dissociation pathways. This database will be very useful for the rapid and accurate detection of H 1 -antihistamines (known) and their analogues (unknown) illegally added to dietary supplements as well as in other sample matrices.

A highly sensitive, simple and rapid spectrofluorimetric method was developed for the determination of azelastine HCl (AZL) in either its pure state or pharmaceutical dosage form. The proposed method was based on measuring the native fluorescence of the studied drug in 0.2 M H 2 SO 4 at λ em  = 364 nm after excitation at λ ex  = 275 nm. Different experimental parameters were studied and optimized carefully to obtain the highest fluorescence intensity. The proposed method showed a linear dependence of the fluorescence intensity on drug concentration over a concentration range of 10-250 ng/mL, with a limit of detection of 1.52 ng/mL and limit of quantitation of 4.61 ng/mL. Moreover, the method was successfully applied to pharmaceutical preparations, with percent recovery values (± SD) of 99.96 (± 0.4) and 100.1 (± 0.52) for nasal spray and eye drops, respectively. The results were in good agreement with those obtained by the comparison method, as revealed by Student's t-test and the variance ratio F-test. The method was extended to study the stability of AZL under stress conditions, where the drug was exposed to neutral, acidic, alkaline, oxidative and photolytic degradation according to International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Huangqi (Astragali Radix), a traditional Chinese herb, is widely used in clinical therapy in China. In addition, an anti-allergic effect of constituents in Huangqi has been reported in the scientific literature. In the present study, cell membrane chromatography coupled online with UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method was developed to screen, analyze and identify the anti-allergic components of Huangqi. The Laboratory of Allergic Disease 2 (LAD2) cell was used to establish cell membrane chromatography, which was combined with UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The coupled system was then used to screen anti-allergic components from Huangqi. Effects of active components were verified by histamine release assay. A component retained on the LAD2 cell membrane chromatography was identified as formononetin. Bioactivity of formononetin was investigated by histamine release assay in LAD2 cells, and it was found that formononetin could inhibit histamine release in a dose-dependent manner from 1 to 100 μm. The LAD2 cell membrane chromatography online with UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method is an effective technique for screening the anti-allergic components of Huangqi., (Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an ultra-performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous analysis of 20 antihistamines (illegal additives) in dietary supplements. The limits of detection and quantitation of the method ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 µg/mL and from 20.0 to 50.0 µg/mL, respectively. The determination coefficient was >0.999, precisions were 0.2-5.1% (intra-day) and 0.1-8.8% (inter-day), and accuracies were 84.5-111.2% (intra-day) and 91.9-112.0% (inter-day). The mean recoveries of 20 targeted compounds from dietary supplements ranged from 75.4 to 119.3%. The relative standard deviations were <6.6% and complied with established international guidelines. The relative standard deviation of stability was <0.8%. Fifty-two commercially available dietary supplements were evaluated using this method, and were found to have none of the 20 antihistamines in significant abundance., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The photodegradation rate of the anti-histamine cetirizine (Zyrtec®) was investigated in various water matrices. The average observed first-order photodegradation rate coefficient (kobs ), obtained by linear regression of the logarithmic-transformed cetirizine concentrations versus irradiation time in simulated sunlight, was 0.024 h(-1) (n = 6; standard deviation ± 0.004) in deionized water corresponding to a half-life of approximately 30 h. There was no statistical difference in the kobs of cetirizine photodegradation in coastal seawater compared with deionized water or deionized water amended with dissolved chromophoric organic matter. The quantum yield of cetirizine photodegradation decreased dramatically with increasing wavelength and decreasing energy of incoming radiation, with the average value ranging from 5.28 × 10(-4) to 6.40 × 10(-3) in the ultraviolet wavelength range (280-366 nm). The activation energy of cetirizine photodegradation was 10.3 kJ mol(-1) with an observed increase in cetirizine photodegradation as temperature increased. This is a significant environmental factor influencing half-life and an important consideration, given that cetirizine has been detected in wastewater and receiving waters from different locations globally., (© 2014 SETAC.)

Seasonal changes in the concentration of 21 pharmaceuticals in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in České Budějovice were investigated over 12months. The target compounds were 10 antibiotics, 4 antidepressants, 3 psychiatric drugs, 2 antihistamines and 2 lipid regulators. 272 Wastewater samples (136 influents and 136 effluents) were collected from March 2011 to February 2012 and analyzed using two-dimensional liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. All studied pharmaceuticals were frequently detected in both the influent and the effluent wastewater samples, except for meclozine, which was only found in the influent. The mean concentration of pharmaceuticals varied from 0.006μgL(-1) to 1.48μgL(-1) in the influent and from 0.003μgL(-1) to 0.93μgL(-1) in the effluent. The concentration of most pharmaceuticals was higher during winter., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Continually detected biologically persistent nitromusks; galaxolide (HHCB), tonalide (AHTN) and musk ketone (MK), antimicrobial triclosan (TCS), and antihistamine diphenhydramine (DPH) were examined for the first time in edible fillets originating from eight fish species grown in salt- and fresh-water. The sampled fish collected from local grocery stores were homogenized, extracted, pre-concentrated and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using selected ion monitoring (SIM). The presence of the target compounds in fish extracts was confirmed based on similar mass spectral features and retention behavior with standards. Internal standard based calibration plots were used for quantification. The HHCB, AHTN, TCS and DPH were consistently observed with concentration of 0.163-0.892, 0.068-0.904, 0.189-1.182, and 0.942-7.472 ng g(-1), respectively. These values are at least 1-3 orders of magnitude lower than those obtained in environmental fish specimens. The MK was not detected in any fish., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A rapid, sensitive and highly specific HPLC-MS/MS method with direct on-line preparation was applied for the determination of 20 common pharmaceuticals in hospital and urban wastewater. Median drug concentrations were quite similar in the majority of samples, cerca 1 μg L⁻¹ ranging from 0.06 to 2.67 μg L⁻¹ in both water. Pharmaceutical hospital contribution, below 1 %, was negligible, as compared to the huge amount in the municipal plant flow. Due to only partial elimination in the plant, hundreds of kilograms of harmful waste per year are discharged in the River Seine. Therefore, to reduce potential human and environmental exposure, a topic of major concern, an efficient drug treatment procedure should be used at the municipal plant stage in order to reduce urban wastewater pollution. The HPLC-MS/MS method could be a very useful tool to optimize the pharmaceutical wastewater treatment process.

In this research, a greener chromatography employing a short column, Zorbax SB C18 cartridge (12.5 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) commonly used as a guard column in a reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), was utilized as the analytical column in conjunction with a more eco-friendly micellar mobile phase of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) for separation tertiary mixtures of local anesthetics and antihistamines; and binary mixture of colds drugs; and quaternary mixture of some parabens with different separation conditions. The chromatographic behavior of these analytes was studied to demonstrate separation efficiency of this guard column in a micellar mobile phase. Moreover, this column and SDS mobile phase was exploited for determination of parabens in 64 samples of cosmetic product, both those that were produced locally in the community and those that were commercially manufactured. Linear calibration graphs of the parabens as detected at 254 nm were obtained in the range of 1-100 μmol L(-1) with R(2)>0.9990. Percentage recoveries were 92.4-109.2 with %RSD<3, and the limit of detection and quantitation were 0.04-0.10 and 0.20-0.80 μmol L(-1), respectively. This analytical system is not only greener but also faster and employing simpler sample preparation than a conventional liquid chromatographic system., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The conditions for identification were determined for four histamine antagonists: clemastine fumarate, loratadine, cetirizine dihydrochloride and desloratadine by TLC (thin-layer chromatography) method. The selected chromatographic conditions were used to develop a densitometric method for the content determination of the histamine antagonists in medicinal products and substances. The statistical data showed adequate accuracy and precision of the developed methods.

This work describes the development, validation and application of a simple and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) procedure for the analysis of two pharmaceutical mixtures. The first mixture contains the antihistaminic drug ebastine (EBS) and the famous sympathomimetic drug pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (PSD), and the second mixture is composed of EBS and another sympathomimetic agent, phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHR). Effective chromatographic separation of EBS, PSD and PHR was achieved using a Zorbax SB-C8 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm) column with gradient elution of the mobile phase composed of 0.05M phosphoric acid and acetonitrile. The gradient elution started with 20% (by volume) acetonitrile, ramped up linearly to 90% in 5 min, then kept constant until the end of the run. The mobile phase was pumped at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The multiple wavelength detector was set at 254 (for EBS and PSD) and 274 nm (for PHR) and quantification of the analytes was based on measuring their peak areas. The retention times for PHR, PSD and EBS were approximately 2.5, 2.9 and 7.1 min, respectively. The reliability and analytical performance of the proposed HPLC procedure were statistically validated with respect to linearity, ranges, precision, accuracy, selectivity, robustness and detection and quantification limits. Calibration curves were linear in the ranges 5-100, 100-1,000 and 10-200 µg/mL for EBS, PSD and PHR, respectively, with correlation coefficients > 0.9996. The validated HPLC method was applied to the analysis of the two pharmaceutical mixtures in laboratory-made tablets in which the analytes were successfully quantified with good recovery values and no interfering peaks were encountered from the inactive ingredients. Finally, the proposed method made use of DAD as a tool for peak identity and purity confirmation.

The relationships between experimental and computational descriptors of antihistamine drugs were studied using principal component analysis (PCA). Empirical data came from UV and IR spectroscopic measurements. Nonempirical data, such as structural molecular descriptors and chromatographic data, were obtained from HyperChem software. Another objective was to test whether the parameters used as independent variables (nonempirical and empirical-spectroscopic) could lead to attaining classification similar to that developed on the basis of the chromatographic parameters. To arrive at the answer to the question, a matrix of 18x49 data, including HPLC and UV and IR spectroscopic data, together with molecular modeling studies, was evaluated by the PCA method. The obtained clusters of drugs were consistent with the drugs' chemical structure classification. Moreover, the PCA method applied to the HPLC retention data and structural descriptors allowed for classification of the drugs according to their pharmacological properties; hence it may potentially help limit the number of biological assays in the search for new drugs.

In LC method development, the choice of suitable experimental conditions is often challenging for the analyst because of the huge diversity of stationary phases, mobile phase pH and organic modifiers, that could significantly alter the selectivity. The influence of these parameters on selectivity was experimentally tested in both RPLC and HILIC conditions for the analysis of 45 pharmaceutical compounds covering a wide range of physico-chemical properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) models were built to assess the resulting multivariate dataset. The complementarity between RPLC and HILIC was clearly demonstrated. The importance of mobile phase pH as one of the main experimental factors to be considered was confirmed. The RPLC and HILIC methods were thus employed for the analysis of a drug cocktail containing two substrates and their numerous desmethylated metabolites. All the compounds were finally resolved in both modes, with a very distinct elution order. In addition, the possibility to combine columns of different selectivity was highlighted using a column coupler set-up and found to be extremely promising. The same type of experiments was also carried out for the impurity profiling of an antihistaminic drug. In this example, compounds of very distinct polarity were satisfactorily eluted in both RPLC and HILIC modes, using suitable conditions of pH and stationary phase. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the complementary and interest of RPLC and HILIC in the case of pharmaceutical method development., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A novel non-stabilised aqueous suspension polymerisation methodology for the preparation of spherical molecularly imprinted polymers is described with chlorpheniramine (CP), d-chlorpheniramine (d-CP), brompheniramine (BP) and d-brompheniramine (d-BP) as the templates, respectively. Using this rapid and simple technique, controlled polymer beads in the low micron range with narrow size distributions were generated by photo-polymerisation. The use of agitation speed as a method of controlling bead size distribution was demonstrated. Enantioselective properties of the imprinted beads were examined and the polymers prepared using d-chlorpheniramine and d-brompheniramine were capable of discriminating between the enantiomers of the template. Cross-selectivity studies were performed by batch rebinding with the influence of template size and functional group orientation of analytes on the recognition properties of the imprinted polymers investigated. Physical characteristics of all polymers were studied by nitrogen sorption porosimetry, particle size analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to gain an insight into the role of such properties on retention behaviour., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A fully validated UHPLC method for the identification and quantification of pharmaceutical preparations, containing paracetamol and/or acetyl salicylic acid, combined with anti-histaminics (phenylephrine, pheniramine maleate, diphenhydramine, promethazine) and/or other additives as quinine sulphate, caffeine or codeine phosphate, was developed. The proposed method uses a Waters Acquity BEH C18 column (2 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) with a gradient using an ammonium acetate buffer pH 4.0 as aqueous phase and methanol as organic modifier. The obtained method was fully validated based on its measurement uncertainty (accuracy profile) and robustness tests. Calibration lines for all components were linear within the studied ranges. The relative bias and the relative standard deviations for all components were respectively smaller than 1.5% and 2%, the β-expectation tolerance limits did not exceed the acceptance limits of 10% and the relative expanded uncertainties were smaller than 5% for all of the considered components. A UHPLC method was obtained for the identification and quantification of these kind of pharmaceutical preparations, which will significantly reduce analysis times and workload for the laboratories charged with the quality control of these preparations., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) is a serious and troubling crime. It is important to know if and how different drugs might be used to facilitate assault in order to deter such crime. There are a number of ways in which drugs that are used for DFSA might not be detected by routine screens. The purpose of this analysis was to draw reasonable inferences regarding drugs with a high likelihood of being used for DFSA and not being detected by routine screens. National data from poison control centres, hospital emergency rooms, and law enforcement seizures were used to evaluate the relative magnitude of problems and illicit availability associated with different classes of drugs. General drug classes were examined to include additional drugs that might be used for DFSA on the basis of their amnesic effects, widespread availability, and pharmacokinetics (i.e. short half-life). The benzodiazepine-site ligands zolpidem and eszopiclone, 'club drugs' GHB and ketamine, muscle relaxants such as carisoprodol, and antihistamines such as diphenhydramine were identified as drugs that might be used for DFSA and remain undetected by routine screens. Future studies that are designed to examine the role of these drugs in DFSA cases could provide better estimates of their use for DFSA. A better understanding of what is being missed in DFSA cases might help prioritize the development of new assays, provide rationale for the availability of particular assays for routine testing, and inform practitioners and the general public of the potential DFSA risks of certain drugs., (Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Although cocaine is a widely abused illicit substance that is known to cause death, deaths due to its use appear to occur in a minority of those who use it. This report was designed to review drug-related deaths due to cocaine, and the concomitant use of other drugs/medications. A retrospective review of drug deaths at the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office in San Antonio, Texas, was undertaken for cases where cocaine was one of the drugs implicated in causing death. Analysis was performed comparing the concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine present and the absence or presence of other drugs. The data obtained showed that cocaine was toxic over a large range with deaths occurring at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 78 mg/L. Analyses also indicated an increased lethality when cocaine is used in combination with ethanol, heroin, opiates, and antidepressant/antipsychotic medications, which is consistent with previous reports and research. Antihistamine data showed that there may be relationship between increased toxicity and co-ingestion, although more research is necessary.

Aim: To explore whether intestinal microflora plays a role in anti-pruritic activity of baicalin, a main constituent of the rhizome of Scutellaria baicalensis (SB)., Methods: Baicalin was anaerobically incubated with human fecal microflora, and its metabolites, baicalein and oroxylin A, were isolated. The inhibitory effect of baicalin and its metabolites was accessed in histamine- or compound 48/80-induced scratching behavior in mice., Results: Baicalin was metabolized to baicalein and oroxylin A, with metabolic activities of 40.2+/-26.2 and 1.2+/-1.1 nmol.h(-1).mg(-1) wet weight of human fecal microflora, respectively. Baicalin (20, 50 mg/kg) showed more potent inhibitory effect on histamine-induced scratching behavior when orally administered than intraperitoneally. In contrast, baicalein and oroxylin A had more potent inhibitory effect when the intraperitoneally administered. The anti-scratching behavior activity of oral baicalin and its metabolites was in proportion to their inhibition on histamine-induced increase of vascular permeability with oroxylin A more potent than baicalein and baicalin. In Magnus test using guinea pig ileum, oroxylin A is more potent than baicalein and baicalin in inhibition of histamine-induced contraction. The anti-scratching behavioral effect of oral baicalin was significantly reduced when oral antibiotics were simultaneously administered, whereas the effect of baicalein and oroxylin A were not affected., Conclusion: Oral baicalin may be metabolized by intestinal microflora into baicalein and oroxylin A, which ameliorate pruritic reactions through anti-histamine action.

A capillary electrophoresis (CE) procedure combined with UV detection has proved useful for the quantification of the most frequently prescribed antihistamines corresponding to the ethylendiamine, ethanolamine, propylamine, piperazine and other derivative groups in serum samples and pharmaceuticals. Discussions have focused primarily on the optimisation of the separation conditions by considering the following experimental parameters: pH, pressure injection and voltage; under the criteria of maximum resolution and minimum analysis time. The optimised parameters for the determination of antihistamines were a 24 cm capillary (effective length), UV detection at 214 nm, 20 mM phosphate running buffer at pH 2.0, 2 psi s(-1) injection pressure and 5 kV applied voltage. Under these conditions, the analysis time was below 10 min. The proposed method was validated according to the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) guidelines. The limits of detection and quantification were in the ranges of 4-28 and 40-250 ng L(-1), respectively. Intra- and inter-day precision were tested at three different concentrations of the drugs, obtaining RSD values lower than 3% in most cases. The method was robust (RSD<5.6%), simple, specific and suitable for the practical determination of antihistamines in serum samples and pharmaceuticals with high recoveries (95.7-102.9%) without interferences., (2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Histamine H(3) receptor antagonists have been proposed as a novel approach to the treatment of cognitive, attentional, and sleep disorders. It is apparent that H(3) receptor antagonists produce in vivo effects in preclinical animal models of central diseases across a wide dose range. In order to characterize the relationship between efficacy in the preclinical models and H(3) receptor occupancy, a brain slice receptor autoradiography method was used. Brain slice receptor autoradiography requires less in vitro tissue processing, preserves brain structure, and provides anatomical localization of compound in the brain. Consistent with H(3) receptor distribution, in vitro autoradiography experiments demonstrated specific binding of [(3)H]NAMH (N-alpha-methylhistamine) in rat cortex, and other brain regions, but not in cerebellum. Ex vivo H(3)R brain slice autoradiography was able to detect H(3) receptor occupancy by reference antagonists at doses lower than previously found using a homogenate assay format. The method is relatively quick with image acquisition on a beta-imager and is capable of detecting receptor occupancy in different brain regions simultaneously. Furthermore, the increased sensitivity should be useful in providing dosing guidelines for H(3) antagonists in both preclinical and clinical settings.

In this study a PVC membrane electrode for determination of ketotifen fumarate is reported, where ketotifen tetraphenylborate (Keto-TPB) was used as ion exchanger. The electrode has linear range of 5.6x10(-6)-1.0x10(-2) and 1.0x10(-5)-1.0x10(-2) mol/L, with detection limits 2.37x10(-6)and 4.60x10(-6) mol/L in batch and flow injection analysis (FIA), respectively. The electrodes show a Nernstian slope value (58.40 and 61.50 mV/decade in batch and FIA, respectively), and the response time is very short (

To alleviate ion suppression from phosphate buffer and to preserve separation integrity, a new capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (CE-MS) interface was developed. The interface consisted of a low-flow interface and a liquid junction. In this design, both the inlet reservoir and the liquid-junction reservoir were filled with phosphate running buffer. Because the phosphate anions in the column migrated toward the inlet reservoir (away from the electrospray ionization (ESI) source) the problem of ion suppression in ESI was avoided. The liquid junction was incorporated to eliminate issues of degraded separation observed when sheath liquid interfaces use different buffers for separation and MS analysis attributed to differences in anion velocity. The utility of the interface was demonstrated by the analysis of antihistamines at pH 3.5 and the analysis of perfluorocarboxylic acid at pH 9.5.

A simple, accurate, precise and sensitive colorimetric method for the determination of some skeletal muscle relaxant drugs, namely orphenadrine citrate (I), baclofen (II), antihistaminic drugs as acrivastine (III) and fexofenadine hydrochloride (IV) is described. This method is based on the formation of charge transfer complex with 4-chloro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-Cl) in non-aqueous medium. The orange color products were measured at 472, 465, 475 and 469 nm for drugs I, II, III and IV, respectively. The optimization of various experimental conditions was described. Beer's Law was obeyed in the range (2.5-17.5), (5-70), (2.5-25) and (10-50)microg/ml for drugs I, II, III and IV, respectively. The molar absorptivity (epsilon), sandell sensitivity, detection((LOD)) and quantitation limits((LOQ)) are calculated. The procedure was favorably applied for determination of certain pharmaceutical dosage forms containing the studied drugs. The obtained results were compared with the official and reported methods. There were no significant differences between proposed, reported and the official methods.

A 95% ethanol extract from whole aerial parts of Euphorbia hirta (EH A001) showed antihistaminic, antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive properties in various animal models. EH A001 inhibited rat peritoneal mast cell degranulation triggered by compound 48/80. It significantly inhibited dextran-induced rat paw edema. EH A001 prevented eosinophil accumulation and eosinophil peroxidase activity and reduced the protein content in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in a 'mild' model of asthma. Moreover, the CD4/CD8 ratio in peripheral blood was suppressed. EH A001 attenuated the release of interleukin-4 (IL-4) and augmented interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) in ovalbumin-sensitized mouse splenocytes. The results were compared with the effects of known compounds, ketotifen, cetirizine and cyclophosphamide. These findings demonstrated that Euphorbia hirta possessed significant activity to prevent early and late phase allergic reactions., (Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Three simple, sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of oxomemazine hydrochloride in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations. These methods are based on the formation of yellow ion-pair complexes between the examined drug and bromocresol green (BCG), bromocresol purple (BCP), and bromophenol blue (BPB) as sulphophthalein dyes in acetate-HCl buffer of pH 3.6, 3.4, and 4.0, respectively. The formed complexes were extracted with dichloromethane and measured at 405 nm for all three systems. The best conditions of the reactions were studied and optimized. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration ranges 2.0-12, 2.0-13, and 2.0-14 microg mL(-1) with molar absorptivities of 3.2 x 10(4), 3.7 x 10(4), and 3.1 x 10(4) L mol(-1) cm(-1) for the BCG, BCP, and BPB methods, respectively. Sandell's sensitivity, correlation coefficient, detection and quantification limits are also calculated. The proposed methods have been applied successfully for the analysis of the drug in pure form and in its dosage forms. No interference was observed from common pharmaceutical excipients. Statistical comparison of the results with those obtained by HPLC method shows excellent agreement and indicates no significant difference in accuracy and precision.

There is a history of use of algae as foods and as food additives, or nutraceuticals. Although algae are a safe component of human foods and animal feeds, the effects of the algae other than as a source of protein are not clear. We examined the prevalence of an antiinflammatory activity in selected algae using, as an assay system, the inhibition of histamine release from mast cells. Methanolic extracts of eleven algae were examined for activity to inhibit the release of histamine from mast cells in vitro. This activity was found widely among the samples tested. The activities of these extracts were not uniformly stable in acid methanol. Selected extracts studied further did not separate with the use of size-exclusion filtration filters. LH-20 chromatography suggested at least two main elution areas of activity of the Chlorella extract. In summary, we saw wide phylogenetic dispersion of mast cell inhibition activity, suggesting that this antiinflammatory property is common in algae. This effect was apparently due to multiple activities within the algal extracts.

A sensitive and versatile analytical method utilizing high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and precolumn derivatization of 1H-4-substituted imidazole compounds is described. A HPLC method using 4-dimethylaminoazobenzene-4'-sulfonyl chloride (dabsyl chloride) and ultraviolet (UV) detection was developed for the analysis of histamine (HA) H3-selective compounds in human plasma, rat plasma, or homogenized rat cortical tissue. The average intra- and inter-assay variability, over a range of 10 to 0.01 microg/ml, was determined to be acceptable. The lower limit of detection for the dabsylated ligands was estimated to be <1.0 ng/ml while the lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was determined to be 10 ng/ml of conjugate. This assay has demonstrated it's suitability for the sensitive quantitation of several structurally diverse 1H-4-substituted imidazole HA H3-receptor antagonists in biological matrices for pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies.

Two low-molecular cytolytic toxins (RmI and RmII) and four trypsin inhibitors were isolated from the aqueous extract of sea anemone Radianthus macrodactylus. The method of isolation involved precipitation with acetone, gel filtration on acrylex P-4, ion-exchange chromatography on CM-32 cellulose, affinity chromatography on trypsin-binding sepharose 4B, ion exchange chromatography on an Ultrapore TSK CM-3SW column, and reversed phase HPLC on a Silasorb C18 column. RmI, RmII, and JnI inhibitor displayed molecular masses 5100, 6100, and 7100 Da, respectively, when subjected to SDS-PAGE. The isoelectric points were 9.2 and 9.3 for RmI and RmII, respectively. The amino acid composition and N-terminal amino acid residue (glycine) were determined for RmI, RmII, and JnI. Both proteins were nontoxic to mice and crabs. Hemolytic activity was determined to be 25 and 20 HU/mg for RmI and RmII, respectively, and their action on erythrocyte membrane was not inhibited by exogenous sphingomyelin. RmI and RmII exhibited antihistamine activity.

Thirteen antihistaminic drugs and their analogues are tested for their extraction by headspace solid-phase microextraction from human whole blood and urine. Their determination is made by using capillary gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. Relatively high recoveries are obtained for terodiline, diphenhydramine, diphenylpyraline, and orphenadrine in urine; but the recoveries in blood extracts are 4-51 times lower than those in urine extracts for all drugs. Benactyzine and piperilate are not suited for the extraction method. The calibration curves are drawn for four drugs spiked to whole blood and for eleven drugs spiked to urine; excellent linearity is confirmed for the drugs. The detection limits for the drugs are 76-473 ng/mL in blood and 13-186 ng/mL in urine. Diphenhydramine is determined for whole blood obtained from a male subject who had received oral administration of 30 mg diphenhydramine-HCl 150 min before the sampling; the concentrations of the drug are 0.12 and 1.22 micrograms/mL for blood and urine, respectively.

A rapid and accurate reversed-phase HPLC method for separation and simultaneous quantitation of some local anesthetics, antihistamines and preservatives in skin cosmetics is described. The investigated compounds (procaine, lidocaine, mepivacaine, bupivacaine, benzocaine, brompheniramine, benzoic acid, methyl, ethyl and propyl p-hydroxybenzoate, o-phenylphenol) are extracted by ultrasonic treatment in methanol from cosmetic form. Methanol-aqueous orthophosphoric acid (pH 2.8) containing 0.9% dibutylamine has been used as eluent. The influence of different percentages of methanol on chromatographic behaviour has been studied using both isocratic conditions and gradient elution program. The gradient program allows a rapid resolution and quantitation also for acidic preservatives.

For the Content uniformity test (CUT) of tablets where the active drug behaves in a nonaqueous medium as a base a very simple method was developed. This method is based on the extraction of the active drug from the tablet into anhydrous acetic acid and direct titration of the solute with HClO4 (0.1 or 0.05 mol/l solution in anhydrous acetic acid). The course of the titration is followed potentiometrically with a glass and calomel electrode coupled and recorded automatically with a suitable registration potentiometer. The method was successfully applied to samples of commercial tablets containing the following drugs: codeine phosphate, embramine, ephedrine, ethylmorphine, pyridoxine, thiamine and tolazoline, all as hydrochlorides. It can be used also for several other drugs.