New analytical chemistry techniques can detect fake anti-malarial drugs and get them off the market fast, researchers said Tuesday.
One technique, called desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), was developed at Purdue University.
Another technology, direct analysis in real time (DART), was created by the Japanese company JEOL.
The new detection methods eliminate preparation time and can analyze a sample in five seconds, compared to the more than two hours needed by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry when used for the same purpose. Their speed makes high-throughput analysis a reality, the technologies' developers said.
DESI is currently used to quantify the amount of the active ingredient in some anti-malarial drugs, artesunate. A high-speed, charged spray made up of alcohol, an alkylamine compound to stabilize the artesunate, and water is sprayed on a tablet to pick up molecules from its surface and transfer them to a detector.
In contrast, DART directs an ionizing beam of marginally stable helium atoms generated by an electric discharge at a sample.
Researcher Facundo Fernandez and his colleagues the Georgia Institute of Technology are combining the technique with other instruments, such as an ion mobility spectrometer used in airports to detect explosives, to define the chemistry involved and create a successful field tool.
The Georgia researchers said they are adapting the techniques to analyze anti-malarials, adding that the technology might be used to test a variety of medications in the future. A report on their work will appear this summer in the journal ChemMedChem.
Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs
# posted by Network @ 11:19 PM
