"Spin Doctor” to investigate drug delivery in the body
Scientists at the University of Aberdeen are being funded by the European Union to look at the use of a group of chemicals which can help to monitor disease development and targeted drug delivery.
Dr Margaret Foster and her team are using a technique called in vivo EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) to study free radicals which are intimately involved in body processes, for example, maintenance of blood pressure, and in certain diseases such as cancer or arthritis.
Dr Foster explained: “Some free radicals, produced chemically rather than by the body itself, can be used to probe the workings of the body.
“They can be used to monitor the acidity of the stomach which affects digestion and is also of great importance in ensuring that medicinal drugs are properly absorbed from the stomach after being taken orally.
“These free radicals, known as spin probes, can also help to assess disease development and the delivery of medical drugs to the body sites of disease, in essence monitoring the effectiveness of targeting the drugs.”
Varieties of these special chemicals are being developed by groups of chemists in Novosibirsk, Russia who are also involved in the project, along with colleagues in the Netherlands. The team in Aberdeen has developed methods, based on EPR, to allow them to observe the presence of these spin probes inside the living body without the need to remove tissue sample. This is clearly an enormous advantage for the patient.
The final aim of the project is to combine the development of specialised spin probes with the new detection techniques to study a variety of aspects of body chemistry, and to look at the ways in which medicinal drugs are absorbed and used during drug therapy.
Further information from:
Christine Cook, Executive Director of Public Relations, Tel: 01224 272014
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.