The Journal of tropical medicine and hygiene 2015-06-01

Rapid and specific drug quality testing assay for artemisinin and its derivatives using a luminescent reaction and novel microfluidic technology.

Nga T Ho, Darash Desai, Muhammad H Zaman

Index: Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 92 , 24-30, (2015)

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Abstract

Globally, it is estimated that about 10-30% of pharmaceuticals are of poor quality. Poor-quality drugs lead to long-term drug resistance, create morbidity, and strain the financial structure of the health system. The current technologies for substandard drug detection either are too expensive for low-resource regions or only provide qualitative results. To address the current limitations with point-of-care technologies, we have developed an affordable and robust assay to quantify the amount of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to test product quality. Our novel assay consists of two parts: detection reagent (probe) and a microfluidic testing platform. As antimalarials are of high importance in the global fight against malaria and are often substandard, they are chosen as the model to validate our assay. As a proof-of-concept, we have tested the assay with artesunate pure and substandard samples (Arsuamoon tablets) from Africa and compared with the conventional 96-well plate with spectrophotometer to demonstrate the quantitative efficacy and performance of our system. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.