NMR used to ID drug polymorphisms

COVENTRY, England, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- British scientists have found a way to use nuclear magnetic resonance imaging to identify polymorphisms in pharmaceuticals.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and the pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca International devised the technique that can be used to identify unwanted polymorphisms -- wherein an active drug exists in more than one form or crystal structure, thereby causing the drug to act in very different ways.

The breakthrough by the British team opens hydrogen nuclei to useful study by solid-state NMR, which the researchers said will bring immense benefits to the study of polymorphism in drugs and organic molecules in general.

Lead investigator Steven Brown of Warwick University said the new approach should be adopted as a routine tool in pharmaceutical characterization.

The study by Brown, John Griffin and Dave Martin appears in the journal Angewandte Chemie.