The development of new pharmaceuticals relies on the ability of scientists to design elegantly specific drugs for targeted clinical trials. And the isotopic labeling of drug candidates in research labs is crucial in this overall effort.
In a new study, Dr. Benjamin Rotstein’s lab at the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine has collaborated with colleagues to unveil an operationally simple method to prepare carbon isotope-labeled versions of drugs and diagnostics. They developed a method to exchange a single atom in amino acids – building blocks of proteins that are also used to prepare molecules – for its isotope.
“This is really important in drug development because we want to know where the drug goes in the body, how is it metabolized and eliminated so we can plan appropriate dosing and toxicity studies,” says Dr. Rotstein, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology.
The work was described in a paper in Nature Chemistry, a high-impact journal that also published a separate article on the study in which two Danish scientists at Aarhus University described the team’s methods as “important to the field.”
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