5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural prolongs survival and inhibits oxidative stress in a mouse model of forebrain ischemia

In the present study, we hypothesized that 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural could attenuate ischemic brain damage by reducing oxidative injury. Thus, mice were subjected to bilateral common carotid artery occlusion to establish a model of permanent forebrain ischemia. The mice were intraperitoneally injected with 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfura130 minutes before ischemia or 5 minutes after ischemia. The survival time of mice injected with 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural was longer compared with untreated mice. The mice subjected to ischemia for 30 minutes and reperfusion for 5 minutes were intraperitoneally injected with 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural 5 minutes prior to reperfusion, which increased superoxide dismutase content and reduced malondialdehyde content, similar to the effects of Edaravone, a hydroxyl radical scavenger used for the treatment of stroke. These findings indicate that intraperitoneal injection of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural can prolong the survival of mice with permanent forebrain ischemia. This outcome may be mediated by its antioxidative effects.

Rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric method for the quantitative determination of potentially harmful substance 5,5′-oxydimethylenebis (2-furfural) in traditional Chinese medicine injections

With the rapid development and wide application of traditional Chinese medicine injection(TCMI), a number of adverse events of some TCMIs have incessantly been reported and have drawn broad attention in recent years. Establishing effective and practical analytical methods for safety evaluation and quality control of TCMI can help to improve the safety of TCMIs in clinical applications. In this study, a sensitive and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry(HPLC–MS/MS)method has been developed and validated for the quantitative determination of potentially harmful substance5,5′-oxydimethylenebis(2-furfural, OMBF) in TCMI samples. Chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 reversed-phase column(150 mm × 2.1 mm, 5 μm) by gradient elution, using methanol–water containing 0.1% formic acid as mobile phase at the flow rate of 0.3 m L/min. MS/MS detection was performed on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with positive electrospray ionization in the multiple reaction-monitoring mode. The method was sensitive with a limit of quantification of 0.3 ng/m L and linear over the range of 0.3–30 ng/m L(r = 0.9998). Intra-and inter-day precision for analyte was o9.52% RSD withrecoveries in the range 88.0–109.67% at three concentration levels. The validated method was successfully applied to quantitatively determine the compound OMBF in TCMIs and glucose injections. Our study indicates that this method is simple, sensitive, practicable and reliable, and could be applied for safety evaluation and quality control of TCMIs and glucose injections.

Thermoresponsive block copolymer supported Pt nanocatalysts for base-free aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural

A base-free catalytic system for the aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural was exploited by using Pt nanoparticles immobilized onto a thermoresponsive poly(acrylamide-co-acrylonitrile)-b-poly(N-vinylimidazole)block copolymer,with an upper critical solution temperature of about 45°C.The Pt nanocatalysts were well-dispersed and highly active for the base-free oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural by molecular oxygen in water,affording high yields of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid(up to>99.9%).The imidazole groups in the block copolymer were conducive to the improvement of catalytic performance.Moreover,the catalysts could be easily separated and recovered based on their thermosensitivity by cooling the reaction system below the upper critical solution temperature.Good stability and reusability were observed over these copolymer-immobilized catalysts with no obvious decrease in catalytic activity in the five consecutive cycles.