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Therapeutics

Detective work on drug dosage

Nature volume 505, pages 165–166 (2014)Cite this article

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Patients differ in their requirement for, and response to, various drug doses. A general platform that allows continuous monitoring of drug levels in the blood of rats may open the door to patient-specific dosing.

Choosing the right drug dose for a particular patient is more of an art than a science. For example, the dosage of most drugs is simply based on patients' age: “Adults and children 12 years and over, take 2 tablespoons every 6 hours,” for example. In reality, there is patient-to-patient variability in drug metabolism and excretion, highlighting the need for accurate and patient-specific approaches to monitor drug concentration after administration. Taking a big step towards this goal, Ferguson et al.1 describe, in a paper published in Science Translational Medicine, a detection system that allows real-time tracking of drugs in the blood.

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References

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  1. Richard M. Crooks is in the Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1224, USA.

    Richard M. Crooks

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  1. Richard M. Crooks
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Correspondence to Richard M. Crooks.

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Crooks, R. Detective work on drug dosage. Nature 505, 165–166 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/505165a

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