RUDN University doctors demonstrated the capabilities of a new method for remote analysis of drugs in packaging and after entering the body. They can be assessed using radio thermal emission of nanoparticles in drugs. Scientists were able to check the suitability of the medicine without opening the packaging or monitor it inside the body. The results were published in Pharmaceutics.
Quality control of drugs is an important problem that arises both at the production and storage stages. The difficulty is that to test the drug, it is necessary to remove it from the package and send it for laboratory testing. RUDN University doctors showed how to solve this problem using radiothermal emission, which all physical bodies with a temperature above absolute zero have. If the nanoparticle does not look like a smooth sphere, but more like a non-convex polyhedron, then a dipole can form. Then this nanoparticle becomes a kind of nanoantenna or nanoemitter. Similar nanoparticles are also found in conventional medications that we take. RUDN University doctors showed how radiothermal radiation helps monitor the activity of a medicine in the body and assess its suitability without opening the packaging.
“The emission of medicinal nanoparticles opens up an amazing opportunity for pharmaceutical chemistry to control their presence and concentration in finished dosage forms and inside the body,” Gleb Petrov, an assistant at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry of RUDN University said.
For the study, doctors chose two drugs – interferon and virus-like particles. The latter are harmless molecular complexes similar in structure to viruses; they are used in vaccines. Doctors measured the millimeter range emission of the finished dosage forms of these drugs. The authors then compared what happens to drugs under incorrect storage conditions and examined what happens to the drug inside the body using experimental animals, Syrian hamsters.
RUDN University doctors found that radiothermal radiation from drugs in packaging remains stable throughout the year. When the shelf life expires or storage conditions are violated, the radiation density decreases. The authors found that the reason for this is coagulation, or clotting. Also, based on the intensity of radiation, doctors were able to track how the cytokine reaction develops after vaccination. The main result of the study is that RUDN University scientists have shown the capabilities of radiothermal emission as a tool in medicine and pharmacology.
“We have demonstrated the possibility of monitoring the radiothermal radiation of medicines without opening the primary packaging – now it is possible to distinguish between pharmaceuticals with different expiration dates using their inherent radiothermal radiation. This method can be used not only for laboratory quality control of pharmaceuticals but also in preclinical trials to detect the immune response in living organisms in real-time. This is a promising direction for advanced drug quality control. The method allows studying pharmaceutical drugs without opening the packaging at any stage of their life cycle, and can also be further used in preclinical and clinical trials,” Gleb Petrov, assistant at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry of RUDN University said.
