Applications of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to pharmaceutical preparations

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Various pharmaceutical preparations are widely used for clinical treatment. Elucidation of the mechanisms of drug release and evaluation of drug efficacy in biological samples are important in drug design and drug quality control.

Areas covered: This review classifies recent applications of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in the field of medicine to comprehend drug release and diffusion. Drug release is affected by many factors of preparations, such as drug delivery system and microstructure polymorphism. The applications of FTIR imaging and nano-FTIR technique in biological samples lay a foundation for studying drug mechanism in vivo.

Expert opinion: FTIR spectroscopy meets the research needs on preparations to understand the processes and mechanisms underlying drug release. The combination of attenuated total reflectance-FTIR imaging and nano-FTIR accompanied by chemometrics is a potent tool to overcome the deficiency of conventional infrared detection. FTIR shows an enormous potential in drug characterization, drug quality control, and bio-sample detection.

KEYWORDS:

• FTIR
• FTIR imaging
• nano-FTIR
• drug release
• drug delivery
• biological detection

Article highlights

• ·The current pharmaceutical applications of FTIR in middle infrared are classified, and the prospects and opportunities of FTIR for future studies are discussed.

• ·FTIR offers a high-efficiency approach for drug characterization, especially in drug release, because of its high spectral resolution and fast acquisition times.

• ·FTIR imaging with the assistance of chemometrics can be applied to reflect dynamic complex systems in real time.

• ·Nano-FTIR allows this technique to achieve resolution beyond the optical diffraction limit, and the application of infrared technology has been broadened.

• ·Existing shortcomings of FTIR technology and the future development prospect of FTIR are identified.

Declaration of Interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Program of Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology, China (Grant No. 17401902300).