Dementia is a clinical syndrome characterized by cognitive impairment, in which there is disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions. The primary risk factor of dementia is old age, and due to significant changes in the worldwide demographic structure, the prevalence of cognitive impairment is increasing dramatically with aging populations in most countries. Alzheimer’s disease is the predominant and leading cause of dementia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the modifications of amino acids that characterize the initial stages of dementia to help our understanding of the complex and multifactorial pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders. A total of 123 participants were divided into two groups: healthy elderly subjects and patients with mild or moderate dementia. The results of this study indicate that the serum levels of three amino acids were changed significantly in patients with dementia, in relation to the subjects without dementia. In particular, we observed differences in concentrations for serine, arginine and isoleucine (all of them were significantly increased in patients with dementia, compared with the control group). Our results suggest that the metabolisms of some amino acids seem be changed in patients with dementia. We conclude that amino acid profiling might be helpful for the better understanding of biochemical and metabolic changes related to the pathogenesis and progression of dementia. However, considering the multifactorial, heterogenous and complex nature of this disease, validation with a greater study sample in further research is required.

Benzodiazepines (BDZs) are generally commonly used as anxiolytic and/or hypnotic drugs as a ligand of the GABA_A-benzodiazepine receptor. Moreover, some of benzodiazepines are widely used as an anti-depressive and sedative drugs, and also as anti-epileptic drugs and in some cases can be useful as an adjunct treatment in refractory epilepsies or anti-alcoholic therapy. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods, thin-layer chromatography (TLC) methods, gas chromatography (GC) methods, capillary electrophoresis (CE) methods and some of spectrophotometric and spectrofluorometric methods were developed and have been extensively applied to the analysis of number of benzodiazepine derivative drugs (BDZs) providing reliable and accurate results. The available chemical methods for the determination of BDZs in biological materials and pharmaceutical formulations are reviewed in this work.

Linus Pauling has assumed that certain molecules such as functional monomers make self-organized structures around another particle called a molecular template or stamp. Although this theory has proved to be wrong in terms suggested by Pauling, it became the basis for the synthesis of entirely new materials named molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) which entered with great dynamics in the world of science in the early 90s of the last century and gradually gaining more and more popularity. These materials are created by using molecular imprinting techniques, providing selective binding property of the spaces within the polymer molecule of a substance used as a “molecular stamp”. The versatility of the process of synthesizing certain molecules on these materials (which can be drugs, pesticides, carbohydrates, nucleotides, proteins) according to simple modification properties obtained a matrix, by selecting the appropriate functional monomer and process conditions. These fillers provide very selective recognition and differentiation of the enantiomers which are particularly useful in medicinal chemistry. For that reason, they find application in almost every area of life, where the chemical analysis is required. MIPs, due to their compatibility to highly complex matrices, are often used for pharmaceutical and biological estimations. In environmental analysis, MIPs are utilized to detect trace amounts of substances, while used in bromatological and toxicological studies as a useful tool in monitoring norms of dangerous and undesirable chemicals. Hence, the article is a review of the current considerations on the preparation and application of MIPs as well as molecularly imprinted membranes (MIM).