Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is at least 1000 times more sensitive for measuring radiocarbon than the conventional beta counting method. As a result it can be used to identify drug candidates with more appropriate human PK and PD parameters than current in vitro and animal models.

AMS is likely to find many additional useful applications in drug development as the technology evolves and the pharmaceutical industry realizes its benefits.  The present situation with AMS can be likened to that of conventional mass spectrometry 30 years ago whereby the latter has now become a routine and essential tool in drug development.

Corsidus utilizes the AMS facility at the University of Toronto to quantify tissue and plasma levels of radiolabeled drug.  The University of Toronto team consists of global experts in the field of AMS who have devised novel labeling and cost-effective AMS analytical technologies to support strategies for advancing early drug development candidates.  The AMS facility (www.physics.utoronto.ca/~isotrace/) at the University of Toronto site is the only operational AMS facility in Canada and one of the very few in North America.

The extreme sensitivity of the AMS methodology, allows for the measurement of biologically relevant pharmacokinetic and metabolic parameters that can be used to assess the potential utility of a drug development candidate as a viable therapeutic with desired dosing characteristics. Rigorous analyses of AMS generated data can provide bioavailability, half-life, clearance rate and volume of distribution for the microdosed investigational drug.