Microdosing Explained

Microdosing, or micro-dosing, involves the administration of sub-therapeutic doses of drugs to study their effects in humans, aiming to gather preliminary data on safety, pharmacokinetics, and potential therapeutic benefits without producing significant physiological effects. This is called a "Phase 0 study" and is usually conducted before clinical Phase I to predict whether a drug is viable for the next phase of testing. Human microdosing aims to reduce the resources spent on non-viable drugs and the amount of testing done on animals. [1]

Less commonly, the term "microdosing" is also sometimes used to refer to precise dispensing of small amounts of a drug substance (e.g., a powder API) for a drug product (e.g., a capsule)[2] and, when the drug substance also happens to be liquid, this can potentially overlap what is termed microdispensing. For example, psychedelic microdosing.[3]

Techniques

The basic approach is to label a candidate drug using the radio isotope carbon-14,[4] then administer the compound to human volunteers at levels typically about 100 times lower than the proposed therapeutic dosage (from around 1 to 100 micrograms but not above).

As only microdose levels of the drug are used, analytical methods are limited. Extreme sensitivity is needed. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is the most common method for microdose analysis. AMS was developed in the late 1970s from two distinct research threads with a common goal:[5] an improvement in radiocarbon dating that would make efficient use of datable material and that would extend the routine and maximum reach of radiocarbon dating. AMS is routinely used in geochronology and archaeology,[6] but biological applications began appearing in 1990 mainly due to the work of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. AMS service is now more accessible for biochemical quantitation from several private companies and non-commercial access to AMS is available at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Resource at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,[7] or through the development of smaller affordable spectrometers. AMS does not measure the radioactivity of carbon-14 in microdose samples. AMS, like other mass spectrometry methods, measures ionic species according to mass-to-charge ratio.

Psychedelic

See main article: Psychedelic microdosing. Psychedelic microdosing is the practice of using sub-threshold doses (microdoses) of serotonergic psychedelic drugs in an attempt to improve creativity, boost physical energy level, emotional balance, increase performance on problems-solving tasks and to treat anxiety, depression and addiction,[8] though there is very little evidence supporting these purported effects as of 2019.[9]

Impact of psychedelic microdosing

In 2021 it was reported in a study done that an increased conscientiousness was seen due to microdosing. [10] Microdosing was seen to have improved mental health after microdosing with psychedelics after 30 days.[11] More research is needed to ultimately decide whether or not microdosing helps those who suffer from depression and anxiety. Microdosing has not seen to improve participants motor responses, attention, and cognitive problem-solving abilities. Microdosing is still under investigation as to whether it works or not. Researchers are investigating into microdosing more and more, the placebo effect causes difficulties in research on this topic.[12]

In January 2006, the European Union Microdose AMS Partnership Programme (EUMAPP) was launched.[13] Ten organizations from five different countries (United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, France, and Poland) will study various approaches to the basic AMS technique. The study is set to be published in 2009.[14]

One of the most meaningful potential outcomes of Phase-0/Microdosing studies is the early termination of development. In 2017, Okour et al published the first example in literature of a termination of an oral drug based on IV microdose data.[15]

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Burt T, Young G, Lee W, Kusuhara H, Langer O, Rowland M, Sugiyama Y . Phase 0/microdosing approaches: time for mainstream application in drug development? . Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery . 19 . 11 . 801–818 . November 2020 . 32901140 . 10.1038/s41573-020-0080-x .
  2. Tablets & Capsules, March 2009. "Micro-dosing equipment fills niche in R&D, clinical trial materials".
  3. News: Gregoire C . Everything You Wanted to Know About Microdosing (But Were Afraid to Ask). 13 January 2016. The Huffington Post.
  4. Babin V, Taran F, Audisio D . Late-Stage Carbon-14 Labeling and Isotope Exchange: Emerging Opportunities and Future Challenges . JACS Au . 2 . 6 . 1234–1251 . June 2022 . 35783167 . 9241029 . 10.1021/jacsau.2c00030 .
  5. Kutschera . Walter . 2023 . An overview of world-wide AMS facilities . Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms . 538 . 87–94 . 10.1016/j.nimb.2023.02.016 . 2023NIMPB.538...87K .
  6. Web site: 2015-04-14 . Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, C14 Dating, What is AMS? . 2023-05-31 . Carbon Dating Service, AMS Miami - Beta Analytic . en.
  7. Broek TA, Ognibene TJ, McFarlane KJ, Moreland KC, Brown TA, Bench G . Conversion of the LLNL/CAMS 1 MV biological AMS system to a semi-automated natural abundance 14C spectrometer: system optimization and performance evaluation . Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. 499 . 124–132 . July 2021 . 38344059 . 10854407 . 10.1016/j.nimb.2021.01.022 . 2021NIMPB.499..124B . 2021-05-21 .
  8. Fadiman. James. 2016-01-01. Microdose research: without approvals, control groups, double blinds, staff or funding. Psychedelic Press. XV.
  9. Anderson T, Petranker R, Christopher A, Rosenbaum D, Weissman C, Dinh-Williams LA, Hui K, Hapke E . Psychedelic microdosing benefits and challenges: an empirical codebook . Harm Reduction Journal . 16 . 1 . 43 . July 2019 . 31288862 . 6617883 . 10.1186/s12954-019-0308-4 . free .
  10. Dressler . Hannah M. . Bright . Stephen J. . Polito . Vince . 2021-03-24 . Exploring the relationship between microdosing, personality and emotional insight: A prospective study . Journal of Psychedelic Studies . en . 5 . 1 . 9–16 . 10.1556/2054.2021.00157. free .
  11. Rootman JM, Kiraga M, Kryskow P, Harvey K, Stamets P, Santos-Brault E, Kuypers KP, Walsh Z . Psilocybin microdosers demonstrate greater observed improvements in mood and mental health at one month relative to non-microdosing controls . Scientific Reports . 12 . 1 . 11091 . June 2022 . 35773270 . 9246852 . 10.1038/s41598-022-14512-3 . 2022NatSR..1211091R .
  12. Web site: MD . Peter Grinspoon . 2022-09-19 . The popularity of microdosing of psychedelics: What does the science say? . 2024-04-16 . Harvard Health . en.
  13. Web site: European Union Microdose AMS Partnership Programme. European Commission: CORDIS EU Research Results.
  14. Burt T, Yoshida K, Lappin G, Vuong L, John C, de Wildt SN, Sugiyama Y, Rowland M . Microdosing and Other Phase 0 Clinical Trials: Facilitating Translation in Drug Development . Clinical and Translational Science . 9 . 2 . 74–88 . April 2016 . 26918865 . 5351314 . 10.1111/cts.12390 .
  15. Okour M, Derimanov G, Barnett R, Fernandez E, Ferrer S, Gresham S, Hossain M, Gamo FJ, Koh G, Pereira A, Rolfe K, Wong D, Young G, Rami H, Haselden J . A human microdose study of the antimalarial drug GSK3191607 in healthy volunteers . British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology . 84 . 3 . 482–489 . March 2018 . 29168205 . 5809343 . 10.1111/bcp.13476 .

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