Analysis of Simvastatin using a Simple and Fast High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Ultra Violet Method: Development, Validation and Application in Solubility Studies

Purpose: To develop and validate an accurate, rapid and reproducible reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) analytical method for the lipid lowering drug, simvastatin, and to apply the developed method to study the solubility of the drug in various oils andsurfactants.Methods: Isocratic RP-HPLC system with a UV-vis detector, and a column with dimensions 4.6 mm x 150 mm and 5ì particle size, was employed. The mobile phase consisted of methanol and 0.01M KH2PO4 phosphate buffer (80:20) at pH 5.5 adjusted with phosphoric acid (2M) and pumped at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. Validation parameters, viz, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ) linearity, accuracy, precision, and sensitivity, were established. Solubility study was performed in various oils and surfactants at 25°C and the developed HPLC method was applied to analyze all samples.Results: The developed HPLC method showed good linearity (R2 = 0.9958 ± 0.0040. The intra- and inter-day % accuracy was more than 98 %. LOQ and LOQ were 0.160 and 0.484 ìg/ml respectively. Simvastatin showed the highest solubility in sesame oil (15 mg/ml) and in Tween 80 (11 mg/ml) at 25oC.Conclusion: An accurate, rapid and robust HPLC-UV method has been developed, validated and applied successfully to determine the solubility of simvastatin in oils.Keywords: Simvastatin, Validation, Solubility, Sesame oil, Tween 80

Solubility and Permeability Studies of Aceclofenac in Different Oils

Purpose: To measure the extent of solubility of the lipophilic drug,   aceclofenac, in 13 oils as well as its in vitro permeability from these oils in order to develop optimized topical microemulsion and  microemulsion-based gel for improved bioavailability.Methods: UV spectrophotometeric method was used at the wavelength of 276 nm to measure the dissolved quantity of aceclofenac in each of the oils (almond oil, oleic acid, castor oil, paraffin oil, cinnamon oil, clove oil, canola oil, sesame oil, isopropyl myristate (ipm), sunflower oil, corn oil, coconuts oil and eucalyptus oil) at 25 °C. The in-vitro permeability of aceclofenac in each of these oils was determined at 32 ± 0.5 °C using Franz diffusion cell with phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) as medium with 0.45ì cellulose acetate membrane. The solubility and permeability of aceclofenac were compared with the hydroalcoholic solution of aceclofenac.Results: The highest solubility values of 9.153 and 8.560 mg/ml for  aceclofenac were obtained with almond oil and oleic acid, respectively (p < 0.05). However the solubility and permeability of aceclofenac in hydro-alcoholic solution were 150.65 mg/ml and 14.91± 0.05 ìg/cm2/h,  respectively. Aceclofenac also showed higher permeability values (1.45± 0.04 and 1.21 ± 0.06) in almond oil and oleic acid, respectively, than in the other oils (p < 0.05).Conclusion: These findings show that almond oil and oleic acid are  promising vehicles for aceclofenac as its enhanced solubility and  permeability in these vehicles are suggestive of improved bioavailability.Keywords: Aceclofenac, Almond oil, Solubility; Permeability, Oleic acid, Bioavailability

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern among Patients Presenting with Acute Exacerbation of COPD

Background: The irrational use of antibiotics in outpatient as well as indoor patients without studying the culture and sensitivity patterns may have led to resistance in common organisms causing acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The objective of this study was to determine the culture and sensitivity patterns of bacteria in the sputum of patients presenting with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in our population.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Medicine Department, Jinnah Hospital Lahore from 1st January 2018 to 25th June 2018. A total of 215 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD were collected through non-probability consecutive sampling technique. COPD was diagnosed on the basis of history, examination, chest X-ray and spirometry. Acute exacerbation was taken as an acute rise in one or more of the following; sputum volume and/or purulence, frequency and severity of cough and dyspnea. Two sputum samples were collected from each patient. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done as per CLSI guidelines. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. with p-value ≤ 0.05 considered as statistically significant.Results: Among 215 selected cases, 118 (54.88%) were males and 97 (45.12%) were females. A total of 110 (51.16%) cultures were positive and 105 (48.84%) were negative for bacterial growth. Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=69; 62.72%) was the most frequent microorganism in patient’s sputum followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=21; 19.1%) and Staphylococcus aureus (n=20; 18.2%). Regarding sensitivity pattern, amikacin was found to be the most sensitive antibiotic against these organisms followed by gentamicin and ciprofloxacin.Conclusions: Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most common microorganism in the sputum of patients presenting with acute exacerbation of COPD, while amikacin was reported to be most sensitive antibiotic against the microorganism.Key words: Acute exacerbation, Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern, COP

Do renewable energy sources improve clean environmental-economic growth? Empirical investigation from South Asian economies

This study investigates the causal relationship between renewable energy sources and clean environmental economic growth among South Asian economies. This study comprises the panel data sets for eight (8) South Asian countries, and data start from 2003 to 2017. This study implies a Hausman test to identify which particular tests are more suitable and selected a fixed effect test and granger causality test for effective analysis perspective. Moreover, this study further relies on the panel vector error correction model (PVECM) test to suggest for long-run relationship existence among variables. Furthermore, the evaluation of the panel and the dynamic ordinary least squares regression shows that the production of renewable energy has compelled an effect on economic growth. While other sources of energy for instance, hydropower, geothermal, wind, and solar, have valuable and considerable influence on the economic growth of South Asian economies. The results reveal with these remarks the existence of positive associations among productions of renewable energies, energy dependence, and gross domestic product per capita. The obtained results reveal that renewable energy sources show a momentous effect on the economic growth of South Asian economies

Assessment of Available Manganese in Milk by Using fodders Grown in Long-Term Wastewater Irrigated Soil

Heavy metals are considered as most important contaminations due to industrialization of countries and an influence on its existence in soil, plant and milk. A study was carried out to check manganese content in soil, forage and milk at three sites of city Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan. All samples (milk, soil, water, fodder plants and ground water) were analyzed for manganese by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Different health indices were also studied to check Mn flow in food chain. Level of Mn in samples was found within acceptable limits. Manganese level was higher in soil samples collected from Site-III than other sites. Manganese showed higher value (2.595 to 10.402 mg/kg) in soil than other samples. Fodders were found to accumulate manganese from 0.008 to 0.022 mg/kg. Manganese concentration was found to be 0.1482 to 1.241 mg/L, 0.164 to 0.9708 mg/L in water and milk, respectively. BCF and PLI values for manganese were also found to be less than 1. Estimated daily intake (EDI) and THQ of manganese are found within permissible limits in milk of cows feeding on fodders irrigated with wastewater and ground water. So, use of wastewater for irrigation purpose should be properly checked due to possible toxic effects

Evolution towards Smart and Software-Defined Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a mesh network of interconnected objects with unique identifiers that can transmit data and communicate with one another without the need for human intervention. The IoT has brought the future closer to us. It has opened up new and vast domains for connecting not only people, but also all kinds of simple objects and phenomena all around us. With billions of heterogeneous devices connected to the Internet, the network architecture must evolve to accommodate the expected increase in data generation while also improving the security and efficiency of connectivity. Traditional IoT architectures are primitive and incapable of extending functionality and productivity to the IoT infrastructure’s desired levels. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and virtualization are two promising technologies for cost-effectively handling the scale and versatility required for IoT. In this paper, we discussed traditional IoT networks and the need for SDN and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), followed by an analysis of SDN and NFV solutions for implementing IoT in various ways

Determination of expression profile of p53 gene in different grades of breast cancer tissues by real time PCR

Background: Pakistan has a high incidence of breast cancer in Asia, where annually 16,232 deaths are reported. There are many exogenous and endogenous risk factors that affect the tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes. The p53 gene is a tumor suppressor gene and it has a role to protect the whole genome from external and internal stresses, which causes damages to the genome. Objective: The aim of the current study was to investigate the p53 gene expression by using the real-time PCR technique in different grades of breast cancer as compared to the normal tissue. Methods: Fresh Modified Radical Mastectomy (MRM) samples (grade1-grade3) were collected from different hospitals of the Lahore. The project was approved by an ethical review committee of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. And before sampling an informed consent was obtained from patients and clinicians. RNA from fresh biopsies was extracted by Qiagen extraction kit and cDNA was formed. Real time PCR performed by using SYBR green master mix (ABI) and the data was evaluated by using Livak method. Statistical analysis was done by using Microsoft Excel. Results: There was an abnormal gene expression of p53 in all grades of the breast tumors. Non-significant (p>0.05) difference of down and up regulation of p53 in different grades of breast tumor was found. However, as a whole up-regulation was more than down-regulation with significant difference (p<0.0011). Conclusion: The abnormal expression of p53 shows that there are some genetic and epigenetic factors which are the primal cause of an abnormal gene expression. It is recommended that perform next generation sequencing (NGS) of the gene to find out the mutations causing the abnormal behavior of p53 gene

Comparative Study of Liquid Biodiesel From Sterculia foetida (Bottle Tree) Using CuO-CeO2 and Fe2O3 Nano Catalysts

This study examined the potential of nanocatalyst CuO-CeO2 and Fe2O3 for efficient conversion of Sterculia foetida seed Oil into biodiesel. S. foetida contains 40% oil content and low free fatty acid value (0.18 mg KOH/g). The synthesized nanocatalyst was characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques. The maximum conversion was achieved (92% yield) using CuO-CeO2 at 0.25% catalyst loading. The optimized reaction was carried out by experimental variables included molar ratio (1:9), temperature (70°C), reaction time (3 h) and stirring rate (600 rpm) using reflux transesterification method. The XRD results showed the size of crystals with order 54.4 nm for CuO-CeO2 and 31.3 nm for Fe2O3. The SEM images of CuO-CeO2 showed spherical structure having an average particle size of 32.3 nm. SEM images of Fe2O3 showed the size ranges from 46.27 to 28.76 nm having regular morphology, including spherical shape. The FT-IR analysis of this nanocatalyst also reinforced the results of this study. Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed the efficient conversion of S. foetida seed oil into biodiesel using prepared nanocatalysts. The prepared nanocatalysts are cheaper, readily available and can be used for industrial scale biofuel production assembly, making it economically feasible and more cost effective

Cobalt availability in the soil plant and animal food chain: a study under a peri-urban environment

Abstract Cobalt metal is considered as an essential trace element for the animals. Present investigation was undertaken in the peri-urban area to analyze the cobalt availability in animal food chain by using different indices. Cow, buffalo and sheep samples along with forage and soil samples were collected from the three different sites of District Jhang and analyzed through atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Cobalt values differed in soil samples as 0.315-0.535 mg/kg, forages as 0.127-0.333 mg/kg and animal samples as 0.364-0.504 mg/kg. Analyzed cobalt concentration in soil, forage and animal samples was found to be deficient in concentration with respect to standard limits. Soil showed the minimum cobalt level in Z. mays while maximum concentration was examined in the forage C. decidua samples. All indices examined in this study has values lesser than 1, representing the safer limits of the cobalt concentration in these samples. Enrichment factor (0.071-0.161 mg/kg) showed the highly deficient amount of cobalt enrichment in this area. Bio-concentration factor (0.392-0.883) and pollution load index (0.035-0.059 mg/kg) values were also lesser than 1 explains that plant and soil samples are not contaminated with cobalt metal. The daily intake and health risk index ranged from 0.00019-0.00064 mg/kg/day and 0.0044-0.0150 mg/kg/day respectively. Among the animals, cobalt availability was maximum (0.0150 mg/kg/day) in the buffaloes that grazed on the C. decidua fodder. Results of this study concluded that cobalt containing fertilizers must be applied on the soil and forages. Animal feed derived from the cobalt containing supplements are supplied to the animals, to fulfill the nutritional requirements of livestock