Canada (Commonwealth Union) – The discovery of a new light technology that can track the delivery of medicine could possibly revolutionize medical treatment with physicians able to track the delivery. The actions of medicine or drugs is usually determined by results. However, with this new technology, researchers can determine if the medicine is reaching the desired location.
Researchers from Western University formed the new material capable of enhancing the route medicines by providing physicians a chance to visualize if they are delivered to the targets and functioning correctly. The addition of material presently in use to transport medication to targeted sites in the body with another that glows in the dark.
The chemistry professor Lijia Liu and master’s student Ellie W.T Shiu have formed a method capable of monitoring the route of a drug carrier via the human body. The technology is likely to be made use of in the near future to track medical treatment for cancer and bone disease and eventually have much broader therapeutic use.
The Canadian Light Source (CLS) provided assistance at the University of Saskatchewan for Shiu and Liu to visualize the interactions of the luminescent optical system and the drug carrier. The study recently appeared in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. “Our optical probe is kind of like glow-in-the-dark paint or when you walk into a club wearing those [glow-stick] bracelets, and you can still see the light,” Professor Liu said.
The design by Professor Liu and Shiu transmits near infrared light that can be monitored by standard bioimaging methods. This system is likely to be safer in comparison to other probes which need radiation use for light production. The study was initiated as a bachelor’s degree project for Shiu, presently a postgraduate student in Liu’s lab. She worked together with CLS scientists who assisted her carry out the experiments remotely.
