5 ms·
In drug development, a lot of the engineering goes into making sure the pharmaceutical compound -- having been developed -- actually reaches the target area of
by idrios 4y ago
In drug development, a lot of the engineering goes into making sure the pharmaceutical compound -- having been developed -- actually reaches the target area of the body. If the compound is a relatively large particle that needs to get into the blood stream, a nasal spray might result in the compound being deposited at the bottom of a person's lungs without ever getting absorbed. If stomach acids break the chemical down then digestion might not be a feasible approach. Intravenous might work but shots are scary, or worse the medication may need to be administered in low doses over a long period of time, requiring an IV catheter.
For a pill that can be digested, often it will be the case that the pharmaceutical compound needs a lot of buffer space, sugar or something else to prevent it from being absorbed too quickly. So if a pill says "Do not break in half" or "Do not chew", this is because doing these things increased the pill's surface area and the rate that the drug gets absorbed, when optimal rate of absorption has already been calculated.
- agumonkey 4y agothat's pharmacokinetics right ?
- majkinetor 4y agoYes.
- golergka 4y ago> a nasal spray might result in the compound being deposited at the bottom of a person's lungs without ever getting absorbed Is it also true for cocaine and other similarly ingested substances? Are coke users walking around with garbage in their lungs?
- idrios 4y agoI don't actually know the answer to this, but I know that heavy particles in the lungs would trigger an intense fit of coughing to get rid of them, and so I doubt that residue would accumulate. I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.
- exikyut 4y agoFWIW chubbyemu on YouTube has a community tab, it's generally full of memes but maybe a question like this could work there. Not entirely sure.
- flobosg 4y agoI didn’t know about that channel but now I’m hooked. Thanks for the tip!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- caseyslaught 4y agoGrapefruit juice can also increase the amount of a drug absorbed into the bloodstream. It blocks an enzyme in the small intestine that breaks down many types of drugs.
- majkinetor 4y agoThose are called bioactivators. The other ones are piperine from white pepper and MSM which promotes nutrient digestibility.
- aszantu 4y agowhat's msm?
- telesilla 4y agoWe're told as young women to avoid grapefruit, it causes the anti-contraceptive pill to fail. Interesting, right?
- comprev 4y agoI read something similar about THC (weed) and mangos. The fruit either accelerated or enhanced the drug effect.
- c7DJTLrn 4y agoA nice word for this is potentiation.
- majkinetor 4y agoWhy don't we use liposomes for all drugs ?
- ticklemyelmo 4y agoWhen I was researching my kid's ADHD medicine I was fascinated to learn about its osmotic release delivery system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic-controlled_release_oral_delivery_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic-controlled_release_ora...). What looks like a simple pill is actually a tiny machine that delivers the medicine at a precisely controlled rate over a period of hours.
- tsol 4y agoTime release medications in general are fascinating. There's another ADHD medicine, Vyvanse, that has a really interesting mechanism. The (dextro)amphetamine molecule is chemically binded to l-lysine-- a common amino acid. This makes it inactive, so one can't just snort it. It must be ingested, where in the digestive tract it meets protelytic enzymes that break down the bonds of amino acids. So it detaches the l-lysine molecules and then amphetamine molecules-- but only at a set rate. See, because there's only a finite amount of proteolytic enzymes in the gut this breakdown occurs at a predictable rate. It's so simple yet so complex at the same time, really is a brilliant time release mechanism