Aging is a complex process of organism decline in physiological functions. There is no clear theory explaining this phenomenon, but the most accepted one is the oxidative stress theory of aging. Biomarkers of oxidative stress, substances, which are formed during oxidative damage of phospholipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, are present in body fluids of diseased people as well as the healthy ones (in a physiological concentration). 8-isoprostaglandin F_2αis the most prominent biomarker of phospholipid oxidative damage,o-tyrosine, 3-chlorotyrosine, and 3-nitrotyrosine are biomarkers of protein oxidative damage, and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine and 8-hydroxyguanosine are biomarkers of oxidative damage of nucleic acids. It is thought that the concentration of biomarkers increases as the age of people increases. However, the concentration of biomarkers in body fluids is very low and, therefore, it is necessary to use a sensitive analytical method. A combination of HPLC and MS was chosen to determine biomarker concentration in three groups of healthy people of a different age (twenty, forty, and sixty years) in order to find a difference among the groups.

Methods for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation (ATH) of ketones and imines are still being intensively studied and developed. Of foremost interest is the use of Noyori’s [RuCl(η⁶-arene)(N-TsDPEN)] complexes in the presence of a hydrogen donor (i-PrOH, formic acid). These complexes have found numerous practical applications and have been extensively modified. The resulting derivatives have been heterogenized, used in ATH in water or ionic liquids and even some attempts have been made to approach the properties of biocatalysts. Therefore, an appropriate modification of the catalyst that suits the specific requirements for the reaction conditions is very often readily available. The mechanism of the reaction has also been explored to a great extent. Model substrates, acetophenone (a ketone) and 6,7-dimethoxy-1-methyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline (an imine), are both reduced by this Ru catalytic system with almost perfect selectivity. However, in each case the major product is a different enantiomer (S- for an alcohol, R- for an amine when the S,S-catalyst is used), which demanded an in-depth mechanistic investigation. Full-scale molecular modelling of this system enabled us to visualize the plausible 3D structures of the transition states, allowing the proposition of a viable explanation of previous experimental findings.

K[Pt(NH₃)Cl₃], a valuable precursor for the preparation of platinum complexes with cytostatic activity, e.g. satraplatin, picoplatin, LA-12 and cycloplatam, is currently prepared from cis-[Pt(NH₃)₂Cl₂] or K₂[PtCl₄] and these are the usual impurities in the final product. A simple, selective and sensitive HPLC-UV analytical method for the determination of the purity of K[Pt(NH₃)Cl₃] and the quantification of the impurities has been developed and validated. The platinum complexes present in the final product were separated on a strong base ion exchange column by the gradient elution with detection at 213 nm. Intra-assay precisions for the platinum complexes respective to their ions ([PtCl₄]²⁻, [Pt(NH₃)Cl₃]⁻ and cis-[Pt(NH₃)₂Cl₂]) were between 0.1 and 2.0% (relative standard deviation); intermediate precisions were between 1.4 and 2.0% and accuracies were between 98.6 and 101.4%. Limits of detection of [PtCl₄]²⁻, [Pt(NH₃)Cl₃]⁻ and cis-[Pt(NH₃)₂Cl₂] were 6 µg · ml⁻¹, 13 mg · ml⁻¹ and 5 µg · ml⁻¹ respectively, limits of quantification of [PtCl₄]²⁻, [Pt(NH₃)Cl₃]⁻ and cis-[Pt(NH₃)₂Cl₂] were 51 µg · ml⁻¹, 55 mg · ml⁻¹ and 20 µg · ml⁻¹ respectively.