In a well defined project for a pharmaceutical company we could, through a small set of experiments, determine the drug mechanism of action towards a cell and refute other possibilities.
It was of importance to determine to what extent the drug in focus associated to cells of target. The question was if the drug was incorporated in the cell membrane, interacting with the palisade layer or only associated to the surface.
To determine the level of interaction between the drug and the cells we chose to study model liposomes and the effect that the drug had on the lipids used by using calorimetry, DSC. Through a restricted number of well thought through measurements it was clear that the drug associated not only with the palisade layer but was fully incorporated in the membrane. The drug was compared with a reference molecule of the company’s choice for best possible basis for further decision making within the company.
