Folate-Targeted Monodisperse PEG-Based Conjugates Made by Chemo-Enzymatic Methods for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

This paper focuses on preliminary in vitro and in vivo testing of new bivalent folate-targeted PEGylated doxorubicin (DOX) made by modular chemo-enzymatic processes (FA₂-dPEG-DOX₂). A unique feature is the use of monodisperse PEG (dPEG). The modular approach with enzyme catalysis ensures exclusive γ-conjugation of folic acid, full conversion and selectivity, and no metal catalyst residues. Flow cytometry analysis showed that at 10 µM concentration, both free DOX and FA₂-dPEG-DOX₂ would be taken up by 99.9% of triple-negative breast cancer cells in 2 h. Intratumoral injection to mice seemed to delay tumor growth more than intravenous delivery. The mouse health status, food, water consumption, and behavior remained unchanged during the observation.     

Combining extractive heterogeneous-azeotropic distillation and hydrophilic pervaporation for enhanced separation of non-ideal ternary mixtures

The separation of non-ideal mixtures using distillation can be an extremely complex process and there continues to be a need to further improve these techniques. A new method which combines extractive heterogeneous-azeotropic distillation (EHAD) and hydrophilic pervaporation (HPV) for the separation of non-ideal ternary mixtures is demonstrated. This improved distillation method combines the benefits of heterogeneous-azeotropic and extractive distillations in one column but no added materials are needed as is usually the case with pervaporation. The separation of water-methanol-ethyl acetate and water-methanol-isopropyl acetate mixtures were investigated to demonstrate the accuracy of the combined EHAD/HPV technique. There is not currently an established treatment strategy for the separation of the second mixtures in the literature. These separation processes were rigorously modelled and optimized using a professional flowsheet. The objective functions were total cost and energy consumption and heat integration was also investigated. The verification of the process modelling was carried out using laboratory-scale measurements. Extractive heterogeneous-distillation combined with methanol dehydration was found to be more efficient than conventional distillation for the separation of these highly non-ideal mixtures.