Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 18, Issue 10, 2017

Background: The abuse of new psychoactive substances or NPS has been dramatically increasing all around the world since the last half of the year 2000 and has become a serious public health problem. NPS are a challenge for the worldwide forensic community due to the difficulties to accurately document the cases. The N-benzylmethoxy (NBOMe) group is a new class of hallucinogenic designer drugs and has gained i Read More

Background: Hair has been suggested since the middle of the 90's to be a suitable matrix to document repetitive exposure to cannabis. Because it is possible to detect Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (CBN) and cannabidiol (CBD) in cannabis smoke, the identification of the metabolite, 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) has been considered to allow the discrimination of active use. Read More

Background: Urine is a common biological sample to monitor recent drug exposure, and oral fluid is an alternative matrix of increasing interest in clinical and forensic toxicology. Limited data are available about oral fluid vs. urine drug disposition, especially for synthetic cannabinoids. Objective: To compare urine and oral fluid as biological matrices to monitor recent drug exposure among HIV-infected homeless individuals. Metho Read More

Background: Identification of metabolites is of importance in the challenge of new psychoactive substances (NPS) as it could improve the detection window in biological matrices in clinical and forensic cases of intoxication. Considering the numerous and diverse NPS reported each year, producers increasingly appear today to be targeting non-controlled synthetic opioids, involving fentanyl derivatives such as furanyl fenta Read More

Background: It has long been recognized that ensuring analyte stability is of crucial importance in the use of any quantitative bioanalytical method. As analyses are usually not performed directly after collection of the biological samples, but after these have been processed and stored, it is essential that analyte stability can be maintained at storage conditions to ensure that the obtained concentration results adequately refl Read More

Background: To date, an increasing number of pet owners, especially in the USA, are using cannabis-derived products containing generally delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) to help their animals' health. Unfortunately, studies on the clinical use of cannabinoids in veterinary medicine are still limited, and the application of analytical methodologies for the determination of cannabinoids in animal (es Read More

Background: Since 2013 Cannabis-based preparations, containing the two main cannabinoids of interest, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and cannabidiol (CBD), can be used for therapeutic purposes, such as palliative care, neurodegenerative disorder treatment and other therapies. The preparations may consist of a drug partition in sachets, capsules or through the extraction in certified olive oil. Objective: The aims of th Read More

Background: New psychoactive substances (NPS) are a heterogenic group of substances with different chemical structures and psychotropic effects. Method: Many pharmacotoxicological laboratories performing drug testing in conventional and nonconventional biological matrices for clinical and forensic purposes do not include screening procedures for NPS in their routine protocols. This is mainly due to the continued Read More

Background: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) play a similar but complementary role in the regulation of glucose levels in islet β-cells. This study was aimed to develop a fusion peptide, which combines 4 tandem repeated GLP-1 and 4 tandem repeated GIP (4rolGG), and to investigate its therapeutic effect on type 2 diabetes using a diabetic mice model. Methods: A 4rolGG expression plas Read More

Background: Rhododendron brachycarpum (RB) is a genus of flowering plants generally used for traditional medicine in Korea to treat hypertension, neuralgia, and sterility. Previous studies have shown that RB extract alleviate inflammation and antimicrobial activity. Objective: In this study, the effects of RB and its different fractions (n-hexane, ethyl-acetate and n-butanol) on antioxidant activity, DNA damage prev Read More

Background: The novel water-soluble inclusion complex of Brucea javanica oil (BJO) by β-cyclodextrin polymers (CDP) was prepared by saturated aqueous method and characterized by SEM, FT-IR and 1H NMR. Compared with BJO, the aqueous solubility of BJO-CDP (77.76%) greatly enhanced due to the water-soluble CDP host. Results: In the acute toxicity test, the value of LD50 of BJO-CDP was 11.94 g/kg, suggesting the lower Read More