Development of novel molecularly imprinted solid-phase microextraction fibers and their application for the determination of antibiotic drugs in biological samples by SPME-LC/MSn

Novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-coated fibers for solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers were prepared by using linezolid as the template molecule. The characteristics and application of these fibers were investigated. The polypyrrole, polythiophene, and poly(3-methylthiophene) coatings were prepared in the electrochemical polymerization way. The molecularly imprinted SPME coatings display a high selectivity toward linezolid. Molecularly imprinted coatings showed a stable and reproducible response without any influence of interferents commonly existing in biological samples. High-performance liquid chromatography with spectroscopic UV and mass spectrometry (MS) detectors were used for the determination of selected antibiotic drugs (linezolid, daptomycin, amoxicillin). The isolation and preconcentration of selected antibiotic drugs from new types of biological samples (acellular and protein-free simulated body fluid) and human plasma samples were performed. The SPME MIP-coated fibers are suitable for the selective extraction of antibiotic drugs in biological samples

Supramolecular recognition of estrogens via molecularly imprinted polymers

The isolation and preconcentration of estrogens from new types of biological samples (acellular and protein-free simulated body fluid) by molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction has been described. In this technique, supramolecular receptors, namely molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are used as a sorbent material. The recognition sites of MIPs were prepared by non-covalent multiple interactions and formed with the target 17β-estradiol as a template molecule. High-performance liquid chromatography with spectroscopic UV, selective, and a sensitive electrochemical CoulArray detector was used for the determination of 17β-estradiol, estrone, and estriol in simulated body fluid which mimicked human plasma

Determination of zearalenone and its metabolites in endometrial cancer by coupled separation techniques

This study presents a selective method of isolation of zearalenone (ZON) and its metabolite, α-zearalenol (α-ZOL), in neoplastically changed human tissue by accelerated solvent and ultrasonic extractions using a mixture of acetonitrile/water (84/16% v/v) as the extraction solvent. Extraction effectiveness was determined through the selection of parameters (composition of the solvent mixture, temperature, pressure, number of cycles) with tissue contamination at the level of nanograms per gram. The produced acetonitrile/water extracts were purified, and analytes were enriched in columns packed with homemade molecularly imprinted polymers. Purified extracts were determined by liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with different detection systems (diode array detection - DAD and mass spectrometry - MS) involving the Ascentis RP-Amide as a stationary phase and gradient elution. The combination of UE-MISPE-LC (ultrasonic extraction - molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction - liquid chromatography) produced high (R ≈ 95–98%) and repeatable (RSD < 3%) recovery values for ZON and α-ZOL

Determination of bone volume porosity based on histograms of the mCT scans

The new method is proposed in the paper for determination of volume porosity of bone tissue based on histograms of 3D mCT scans and also precise defi nition of the threshold value of relative density preserving calculated volume porosity during the reconstruction of the binary image of sample. In this method the normed histogram is considered as a probability distribution of relative mass density in the bone sample. It was shown that the normed histograms of increasing 3D sample are convergent to the limit curve which can be interpreted as a representative histogram of given sample. The limit histograms have been used to determine: the distributions of relative densities in the sets of voxels of pore and skeleton type and their characteristics, the volume porosities of both samples and thresholds values of their binarisation

Application of Micro Computer Tomography to Identification of Pore Structure Parameters of Porous Materials

The purpose of this paper is to apply the scans of microscopic geometry of human bones obtained by Micro Komputer Tomography method to identifi cation of their macroscopic pore structure parameters: volume porosity, permeability and tortuosity of pores and skeleton. These parameters, except the volume porosity, have been determined by simulations of microscopic processes of viscous fl uid fl ow and electrical current passage through virtual models of bones samples. The simulations wave performed using the COMSOL’s Multiphysics environment assigned for solution of boundary value problems described by partial diff erential equations, by use of the fi nite element method