PHARMACOLOGY
Abstract
Department of Biochemistry University of Surrey, Guildford 1 2 3 4 Conjugation methods Antiserum production Labelled compounds Specificity and practical applications a Cardiac glycosides b Morphine and opiate alkaloids c Prostaglandins d Lysergic acid derivatives e Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis) / Anticonvulsants: barbiturates and phenytoin g Miscellaneous drugs and vitamins References Sensitive, precise and specific methods for measuring the concentration of drugs in blood and tissues are needed for two main reasons: for research into their distribution, metabolism and pharmacokinetics and, increasingly, for monitoring treatment (Marks, Lindup & Baylis, 1973). Classical analytical methods are generally too insensitive to permit accurate measurements to be made under clinical conditions, so that even for such well-established drugs as morphine virtually no information is available concerning their concentration in blood under optimum therapeutic conditions. Radioimmunoassay (RIA) techniques, first applied to the measurement of digitoxin in blood (Oliver, Parker, Brasfield & Parker, 1968) but rapidly being extended to other drugs, are helping to correct this deficiency. Many of the problems encountered are similar to those experienced with endogenous compounds. Some are particularly relevant to drugs and it is with these that this paper mainly deals. Whereas the chief obstacle which faced workers developing RIA for