engleski

Biological actions of drug solvents

Many biologic agents are weakly soluble in water. Therefore, they should be dissolved in organic lipophilic solvents (vehicles). A drug vehicle is a substance of no therapeutic value and is used to convey an active biological agent to the site of its action. Ideally, it should be biocompatible, 100% reliable, with no biological effect per se. However, presently used vehicles have pleiotropic effects, which are often unknown to the researchers, and often cause misleading conclusions. In this review we summarize data on biological effects of three most commonly used lipophilic drug vehicles dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), propylene glycol and ethanol. Besides in experimental models, the data, where available, on effects of solvents in therapeutic use in humans are shown. In conclusion, some recommendations on use of drug solvents in experiments are given.

dimethylsulfoxide; propylene glycol; ethanol

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