The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7414 p215
19 August 2006

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Nanoparticles designed for use as overdose therapy

US researchers have prepared particles (80–100nm) using reverse microemulsion polymerisation and tested them as potential drug scavengers for use after overdose.

The researchers, from the Langmuir Centre for Colloids and Interfaces at Columbia University, New York, found that unmodified poly(acrylic acid) and alkyl modified poly(acrylic acid) nanoparticles were able to extract drugs such as amitriptyline and bupivacaine, both toxic in overdose, from phosphate buffer in the presence and absence of normal saline.

Their experiments are published online in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Soft Matter.