New tool follows drug movement in the body

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have developed an analytical tool that can detail the distribution of a drug within the body and without any chemical pretreatment.

A team led by Purdue University Professor R. Graham Cooks said knowing where a drug is circulated and where it accumulates in the body is critical to evaluating its effectiveness and potential for toxicity.

"This is the first analysis that works on an unadulterated sample to show where a drug and its metabolites travel in the body," said Cooks, co-founder of Purdue's Center for Analytical Instrumentation Development. "The analysis method is very fast and can be done on the spot, which could save pharmaceutical researchers valuable time and resources."

The Purdue scientists said the tool is based on a mass spectrometry method invented in Cooks' lab. And while most spectrometry methods require expensive markers to illuminate the molecule of interest and pretreatment of the sample with chemicals, the researchers said their method is the only mass spectrometry technique that can evaluate an untreated sample.

A paper detailing the research appeared in the Aug. 15 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.