Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Applications of Electrochemistry

It was only in the twentieth century that technology enabled the isolation of metallic titanium from its minerals [1]. Thus, industrial production of titanium began relatively late, in 1946. Due to its low density and high corrosion resistance, titanium became indispensable in the aerospace industry. The use of titanium in biomedical applications dates from 1965. Commercially pure titanium and its alloy Ti–6Al–4V are the most commonly used titanium-based biomaterials, especially in orthopedics. Millions of patients are treated with various joint replacements, many patients also with other types of prostheses, such as tumor prostheses, small joint prostheses, fracture-treatment devices, etc.

This review concerns on recent advances in the application of various modern electrochemical techniques to the analysis of pharmaceuticals and biological samples. It is known that different highly sensitive electrochemical techniques are well established in the analysis of selected drugs. The application and choise of the most prefered electrochemical techniques applied to the analysis is closely related on physicochemical properties of the organic functional groups that comprise any given drug structure, especially on redox properties of the pharmaceuticals and biomolecules in real samples.

This chapter describes the application of the most commonly used voltammetric techniques combined with different chromatographic and spectrophotometric as well as spectroscopic techniques in the different aspects of analysis of the pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutically active compounds under consideration belong to: chemotherapeutic agents (antibiotics), drugs receptor affecting neurotransmission and enzymes as catalytic receptors, drugs affecting the cardiovascular system, drugs affecting the immune systems and some other drugs. The review predominantly discusses over 100 publications from period between 2006–2015, with special emphasis on the solving of large number of different analytical pharmaceutical problems. By using the appropriate electroanalytical techniques, owing to their high sensitivity, selectivity and simplicity, it is possible to overcome some problems in standard pharmaceutical analysis on the best way. The selected our most important papers and observed papers which treat electrochemical analysis of pharmaceuticals are discussed, as much as possible, in the chronological order of their publication. The new electroanalytical methods for qualitative and quantitative determination of standard substancies and as a content of commecial tablets are offered and discussed in analysis of five macrolide antibiotics, amphetamines, carbamazepine, donepezil, amlodipine, nifedipine, clopidogrel, tamiflu, oxaprozin and some other drugs. Some drugs are analized in human biological samples.

Orthopaedic devices for permanent implants require short term fixation and fast bone attachment and healing. Superficial modification of surgical implants is often used as a tool to generate a surface that besides being protective could also allow the integration of the metal to the human body, creating a “bioactive” surface that has the ability of creating a natural bonding between the metal surface and the existing bone. One way of achieving this surface modification is by means anodisation since an increase in the thickness and changes in the topography of the native oxide formed on metals can produce an improvement in bone response. Other possibility in the surface modification of the metallic implants is the coatings with organic-inorganic ceramic or glassy coatings as a way to improve the implant performance.The aim of this charter is review the surface modifications produced on orthopaedic and dentistry metallic materials by anodisation and by hybrid coatings by sol gel technique with the aim of promoting both corrosion resistance in physiological fluids and bioactivity.

Synthetic hydroxyapatite (HAP) as the most promising ceramic material used for biomedical applications has excellent bioactivity, biocompatibility, and the chemical composition similar to that of the bone. The development of synthetic materials with close resemblance to the biological and mechanical properties of natural bone tissue is required to overcome load-bearing problem. Titanium has found wide application as basic metal material due to its attributes of strength, stiffness, toughness, impact resistance, and corrosion resistance for manufacturing bioceramic coatings such as hydroxyapatite. However, HAP is very brittle, and for this reason, a great attention has been focused on the development of composite HAP coatings. Natural biodegradable polymer lignin (Lig) is considered as alternative for the development of the new biocomposite coating. On the other hand, the general idea of using graphene (Gr) as nanofiller is to minimize the brittleness of HAP and gain improved mechanical properties of biocomposite coating. However, in recent years problems regarding bacterial infection of bone implants have been resulting in body rejection. In order to stop bacterial infection, it is crucial to inhibit bacterial adhesion since biofilm can be very resistant to immune response and antibiotics. The antimicrobial activity of silver has been known for a very long time. Additionally, silver cation does not develop bacterial resistance and at the same time shows low toxicity to human cells. Hence, the possibility to prevent the implant infections using the antimicrobial properties of Ag has generated great interest in the development of silver-doped hydroxyapatite coatings.