Cinnabaris(α-HgS) is a mineral traditional Chinese material medica, as a tranquilizer and sedative, which is widely used in combination with herbs for the treatment of children high fever and convulsion.However, a large amount of mercury in Cinnabaris poses a potential risk to the immature central nervous system of children and probably causes severe memory disorders.Inthisstudy,three groups of juvenile rats were given low, medium, and high doses of Cinnabaris by oral gavage once a day for 14 continuous weeks, respectively.The blood mercury concentrations of the rats at different growth phases were monitored by atomic fluorescence spectrometry.The brain structural and functional changes related to the memory functions were investigated through HE staining and Morris water-maze test. Correlation analysis was conducted to clarify the dose- mercury exposure-toxic effect relationship of Cinnabaris and memory disorders.It was found thatthe blood mercury levels increased in both time- and dose-dependent manner.After the 14-week continuous administration of Cinnabaris, the pathological lesions in hippocampal neurons of rats in the high dose group were observed including pyknosis and disordered cell arrangement.In the Morris water-maze test, compared with the control group, rats in the high dose group exhibited the significantly prolonged latency to find the platform and the target quadrant, and the time spent in the target quadrant was obviously shortened. Thus, the significant correlations were established between Cinnabaris dose and mercury exposure,mercury exposure and memory disorders, respectively. In conclusion, the long-term and overdose administration of Cinnabaris in juvenile rats can increase the in-vivo mercury level, destroy the normal hippocampal morphological structure, and lead to memory disorders. This study provided scientific references for the potential mercury poisoning risks pharmacovigilance of Cinnabaris-containing paediatric formulations.

The in vitro release is an important index to evaluate the quality of liposome formulation.Currently, there is no evaluation method for the in vitro release of liposome in pharmacopoeia of various countries, which leads to the lack of unified standard and safety guarantee for the quality evaluation of liposome formulation.Taking the self-made paclitaxel derivative liposomes as an example, the paddle membrane binding method established by optimizing external release conditions was used to simulate the complete release of paclitaxel derivative drugs in 12 hours under physiological conditions.The results showed that using 0.5% SDS-HEPES as the release medium and a dialysis bag with a molecular weight cutoff of 1 000 kD to release the liposome solution met the requirements and had discrimination ability, providing a reference for the development of drug-loaded liposomes release methods in vitro.

At present , methamphetamine has become a major hidden danger in global public health safety. In order to judge methamphetamine addicts and methamphetamine abstainers more scientifically and reliably, this study analyzed the endogenous metabolites in plasma, serum and urine of methamphetamine addicts, methamphetamine abstainers and healthy volunteers by highly sensitive high-throughput liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) analytical instrument. The obtained metabolomic data were processed by univariate analysis (t-test) and multivariate analysis (PLS-DA and OPLS-DA) and eligible potential biomarkers were then screened.The identified biomarkers set enrichment analysis to find the connection between metabolites and metabolic pathways.Multivariate statistical results showed that methamphetamine acute group, recovery group and healthy group were clearly separated.3, 18 and 6 regulated metabolites were identified in serum, plasma and urine, respectively, suggesting that lipid metabolism was abnormal in methamphetamine acute group, and that fatty acid metabolism, sulfate/sulfite metabolism and sex hormone metabolism were abnormal in methamphetamine recovery group.The selected potential biomarkers in this study provide the possibility for scientific judgment of the clinical stage of methamphetamine detoxification.

The waste water-based epidemiology is an important technique to fight against drug abuse by analyzing the concentration of illicit drugs in urban sewage, which can monitor the abuse of drugs.An SPE-UPLC-MS/MS method was developed for the analysis of 12 common drugs and their metabolites involving amphetamine and morphine.It was shown that the best result was achieved when hydrochloric acid/ acetonitrile (5∶95) was added to acidify the sample during the concentration process, guaranteeing the anti-across contamination of the analysis of organic nitrogen basic trace components, and improve the stability, specificity, and accuracy of the method.The optimized method meets the analytical requirements of complex sewage samples, and has been successfully applied to the assessment of urban drug abuse through sewage analysis.

Cbf-14 is a novel antimicrobial peptide composed of 14 amino acids.An optimized reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with electrospray-ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (LC-ESI-QTOF/MS) method was developed for separation, identification and characterization of structurally related peptide impurities in Cbf-14 gel.Chromatographic separation was carried out on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-Phenyl column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 3.5 μm), with acetonitrile-20 mmol/L ammonium formate buffer (adjusted to pH 3.0 with formic acid) as eluent using gradient elution.Under the established conditions, Cbf-14 and its structurally related peptide impurities were well separated; and a total of 24 impurities were detected and identified, of which 5 were impurities in the preparation manufacturing process and 19 were stressed products.Based on high resolution mass spectrometry analysis, the origins and formation mechanisms of these impurities were located.The obtained results are useful for the establishment of the manufacturing process, storage condition and quality control of Cbf-14 gel.

To establish a method for the determination of formaldehyde and glyoxal simultaneously in varenicline tartrate active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and its intermediate, formaldehyde and glyoxal were derivatized by 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (2,4-DNPH) to improve the HPLC retention and UV detection sensitivity. Separation was performed on a C8 (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column by linear gradient elution using acetonitrile and water as the mobile phase; the detective wavelength was set at 380 nm.Formaldehyde and glyoxal were quantitatively determined by an external reference method.Linear calibration was established for both formaldehyde and glyoxal in the range from 0.094 to 1.88 μg/mL.The detection and the quantification limits were 0.047 μg/mL (19 μg/g) and 0.094 μg/mL (38 μg/g), respectively.The recoveries were (95.0±1.1)% and (99.4 ± 2.6)% for formaldehyde and glyoxal, respectively.This method has been fully validated to be applicable to quantitative analysis of trace amount of formaldehyde and glyoxal in varenicline tartrate API and its intermediate.Test results demonstrated that the contents of both formaldehyde and glyoxal met the permitted daily exposure (PDE) limits for the finished products of varenicline tartrate API as well as its intermediate, though the glyoxal contents in the crude intermediates were likely to exceed the limit.The established method is valuable for the manufacturing process and quality control of varenicline tartrate.

This study aimed to identify the related substances of lorazepam tablets by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). To separate the related substances of lorazepam tablets, gradient elution was performed using acetonitrile and 0.1% acetic acid -20 mmol/L of ammonium acetate as mobile phase on Inert Sustain C18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm).The accurate mass and elemental composition of the parent ions and their product ions of related substances were determined by electrospray-ionization quadrupole time-of-flight high resolution mass spectrometry (ESI-Q-TOF/MS).The structures of the related substances were identified by spectral analysis. Under the established analytical condition, lorazepam and its related substances were adequately separated, and 22 major related substances with content greater than 0.1% were detected and identified by hyphenated techniques in lorazepam tablets and their stressed samples.Among them, 5 were the impurities listed in the USP or EP, and the others were unknown related substances identified for the first time in this paper.The LC-MS technique can effectively separate and identify the related substances of lorazepam tablets, which provides some reference for quality control.

This study aimed to identify the related substances of midazolam hydrochloride by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). To separate the related substances of midazolam hydrochloride, gradient elution was performed using acetonitrile and 25 mmol/L of ammonium acetate (pH was adjusted to 5.5 with acetic acid) as mobile phase on Thermo BDS Hypersil C18 column (100 mm × 4.6 mm, 2.4 μm). The accurate mass and elemental composition of the parent ions and their product ions of related substances were determined by electrospray-ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-Q-TOF/MS). The structures of the related substances were identified by spectral analysis and process synthesis, and some of them were further confirmed by reference substances. Under the established HPLC condition, midazolam hydrochloride and its related substances were adequately separated, and 22 major related substances were detected and identified by hyphenated techniques in midazolam hydrochloride and its stressed samples, of which 8 were recorded as impurities in the United States Pharmacopeia. The LC-MS techniques can effectively separate and identify the related substances of midazolam hydrochloride and provide reference for the establishment of storage condition, optimization of synthetic processes and quality control.

To identify the amino alcohols related substances in atenolol. The related substances in atenolol and its stressed samples were pre-column derivatized with 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate. The separation was carried out on an Inertsil ODS-SP column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) with linear gradient elution by methanol-ammonium acetate solution as the mobile phases. Electrospray positive ionization high-resolution Q-TOF/MS was used for the determination of the accurate masses and elemental compositions of the parent and fragment ions of these related substance derivatives. The structures of all the detected substances were identified by spectral analysis and synthetic analysis. Under the established conditions, atenolol and its amino alcohols related substances were well separated, and a total of 14 impurity peaks were detected and identified, of which 12 were related substances and 2 were derivatization reaction by-products. The established LC-MS method provides a reference for the examination and quality control of atenolol related substances.

To identify the related substances of cyclosporin A by LC-MS techniques, the separation of cyclosporin A and its related substances was carried out on a Hypersil BDS C18(100 mm×4. 6 mm, 2. 4 μm)column with isocratic elution by a mixture of acetonitrile-water-MTBE and formic acid(430 ∶520 ∶50 ∶1)as the mobile phase. Cyclosporin A and its 29 related substances(9 process related and 20 degradants)were well separated under the established conditions. Among them, 13 were listed in EP and the rest 16 were unknown products having not been reported before. Electrospray positive ionization high resolution TOF/MS was used for the determination of the accurate mass and elemental composition of parent ions of all the components, and triple quadrupoles tandem mass was employed for the product mass spectra determination. Thence, the structures of all the 29 detected substances were successfully characterized through spectra elucidation and the fragmentation pathways analysis. The established LC-MS method was successfully employed for the separation and identification of the related substances of cyclosporin A and it is useful for its fermentation processes and quality control.