Drug-test specificity

P.J. Lewi, Spectral mapping of drug-test specificities. In Advanced Computer-Assisted Techniques in Drug-Discovery (H. van de Waterbeemd, Ed.). VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 1994, pp. 219-253. 

Among the related substances in many antibiotics are various structurally related components in the drug substance, the composite mixture of which is obtained in the synthetic or semisynthetic scheme and which gives rise to the drug efficacy. Control of the relative content of components is therefore necessary for these drugs. Test specification limits for the components are normally stated in terms of area percent of each, as maximum, minimum or a range of values for each or for the sums of several components. The types of components seen in these antibiotics were studied as impurities in the semisynthetic antibiotic clarithromycin, where detection limits of 0.1% w/w were found. Normalization factors were determined for each of 15 known related substances using ratios of the slope of linear calibrations for each substance to that for the reference impurity. 

At least one test shall be conducted to verify the identity of each component of a drug product. Specific identity tests, if they exist, shall be used. 

Control of feeding behavior involves peripheral peptides (insulin, ghrelin, leptin) plus several peptides in the CNS (orexins/hypocretins, CCK, galanin, MSH, neuropeptide Y, CRH, cocaine-and-amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)) [35, 36]. Some of the same peptides are involved in reward systems crucial to drug addiction. Specific receptor blockers are being tested for many of these peptide-receptor systems, with the hope of very selective actins with minimal side effects [35], For example, there are two CCK receptor subtypes, CCK-A and... 

In addition to drugs administered specifically to produce a metabolic effect, there are drug-related physiological changes that cause laboratory test abnormalities. Many drugs have been associated with the appearance of abnormal liver function tests in a fashion that simulates extrahepatic obstruction. These drugs include, among others, chlorpromazine, cinco-phen, methyltestosterone, thiouracil, p-aminosalicylic acid, sulfadiazine, reserpine, meprobromate, novobiocin, caffeine, and phenacemide (L7, L8, S6). 

When I refer to commercial products, 1 am talking about substances that were are sold specifically for beating drug tests. Household products is everything else (ie. bleach or water). Some people object to using commercial products because they are just another instance of someone trying to cash in on the War on Drugs. And that is my attitude when it comes to ineffective commercial products, however, 1 praise the ones that work. 

In drug discovery, specific enzymes or receptors are first targeted for drug action. The earliest experiments use chemistry to synthesize drugs experimental animals to test the biochemical, behavioral, and toxic actions of the drugs and human subjects, both normal volunteers and patients, to test the safety and efficacy of the drugs... 

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