Therapeutic use of mycophenolic acid (MPA) is steadily on the rise in combination with other immunosuppressant drugs in transplantation patients. The biotransformation of MPA resulted in the formation of glucuronide metabolites, MPAG and AcMPAG. There are a plethora of assays validated for the analysis of MPA alone or with MPAG/AcMPAG in various biological specimens including plasma/serum, urine, ultrafiltrate, saliva, PBMC, dried blood spots, tissue extract, tumor biopsies and vitreous humor. Based on the need for experimental work, a proper choice of the assay and internal standard may be made using the choices in the literature. While the chemical methods involving high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or LC coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) are popular, enzymatic assays, in spite of their higher bias, have been used for the routine drug monitoring of MPA. The objectives of the present review are: (a) to provide a focused systematic compilation of the HPLC or LC-MS/MS methods for MPA, MPAG and/or AcMPAG published in the last decade (2005 to current) to enable visual comparison of the methods; (b) to compare and contrast a few enzymatic assays with those of the chemical methods; and (c) to discuss relevant issues/limitations and perspectives on select assays under various subheadings.

A critical review on the effect of ultrasound (US) on enzymes and their biocatalytic action is presented here. Discussion on the information users of US acquire before utilizing the different devices, and the importance they give to US frequency is constant along the review. The authors have gone into the different areas in which the US-enzyme binomial has been applied. The lack of enough information on the US-enzyme-working conditions under which each piece of research has been developed, and the necessity to provide complete information on the data and metadata to give enough light on each piece of research (and thus on the potential comparison of results from different studies) are critically exposed. With this aim, the study has been divided into the positive effect of US on enzymes to favor the production of metabolites, polymers or proteins; and the degradation, inhibition or activation of the biocatalyst under US application. Also the effect of US on enzyme production and the main fields of application of the US-enzyme binomial are discussed.

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