Levitation will help develop new drugs
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
This is not trick, no photoshop and no sleight of hand - scientists really use levitation to improve the development of medicines, which ultimately provides drugs with greater efficacy and fewer side effects.
Engineers from the Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use sound signals to cause individual droplets of solutions to soar in the air.
This method is very important for the study of samples of biologically active substances.
The technology of acoustic levitation is based on the formation of standing waves in airspace. This researchers have achieved with the help of ultrasonic loudspeakers, which emit oscillations of one frequency.
Drops of medicinal samples were soared in the so-called pressure pockets, which were formed from a change in the frequency of oscillations.
Thanks to the process of acoustic levitation, researchers will be able to evaporate solutions of biologically active substances without using blood vessels.
The thing is that evaporation of solutions in the vessels involves contact of the liquid with its walls, and the substance that is in solution tends to crystallize. This is because on the walls of the vessels there are inhomogeneities and irregularities, which in the course of the process play the role of centers of crystallization.
At the molecular level, the structure of drugs is divided into two categories - crystalline and amorphous. Amorphous substances are absorbed by the body more easily and quickly, because they have the ability to dissolve better, and they have higher bioavailability. That is why it is believed that a smaller number is able to give the best result.
"When developing pharmaceuticals, one of the main problems is to reduce the dose that is needed to achieve the desired result," said Chris Benmore, an X-ray specialist and co-author of the study. "Most drugs have a crystalline structure that prevents the body from absorbing the drug to its fullest, so we do not use them with maximum efficiency."
At the moment, despite the success in using the new technology, scientists are able to lead to amorphous state a small amount of the drug. However, this technique is a very powerful analytical tool that allows you to create the conditions necessary to obtain an amorphous powder.
[