Wastewater-based epidemiology to monitor 68 NPS/conventional drug use in Taipei metropolitan area in Taiwan during and after COVID-19 pandemic.

Amidst far-reaching COVID-19 effects and social constraints, this study leveraged wastewater-based epidemiology to track 38 conventional drugs and 30 new psychoactive substances (NPS) in northern Taiwan. Analyzing daily samples from four Taipei wastewater plants between September 2021 and January 2024-encompassing club reopenings, holidays, Lunar New Year, an outbreak, and regular periods-thirty-one drugs were detected, including 5 NPS. Tramadol, zolpidem tartrate, CMA, and MDPV were newly detected in Taiwanese sewage with frequency of 1.

Rapid and sensitive dilute-and-shoot analysis using LC-MS-MS for identification of multi-class psychoactive substances in human urine.

The emergence of new psychoactive substances currently exceeding a thousand is rapidly changing substance prevalence patterns and straining the methods used for detection, most of which are suitable only for a single class of substances. This study presents a rapid and facile dilute-and-shoot system operated in conjunction with an optimized liquid chromatographic separation system for the high-sensitivity detection of substances across a range of substance classes with 3 isotopes used only. The proposed method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is able to identify 68 substance and their metabolites in urine samples as small as 50 μL.

D-501036, a novel selenophene-based triheterocycle derivative, exhibits potent in vitro and in vivo antitumoral activity which involves DNA damage and ataxia telangiectasia-mutated nuclear protein kinase activation.

D-501036 [2,5-bis(5-hydroxymethyl-2-selenienyl)-3-hydroxymethyl-N-methylpyrrole] is herein identified as a novel antineoplastic agent with a broad spectrum of antitumoral activity against several human cancer cells and an IC(50) value in the nanomolar range. The IC(50) values for D-501036 in the renal proximal tubule, normal bronchial epithelial, and fibroblast cells were >10 mumol/L. D-501036 exhibited no cross-resistance with vincristine- and paclitaxel-resistant cell lines, whereas a low level of resistance toward the etoposide-resistant KB variant was observed.