Microbiological assay for antifolate using folic acid assay method
Bhatia, K.G.; Phatak, M.K.; Chitnis, M.P.; Shetty, P.A.; Jussawalla, D.J.
Indian Journal of Cancer 16(2): 35-36
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-509X PMID: 121102 Document Number: 149494
The administration of antitumor agents which show low therapeutic index and severe toxicological effects would be facilitated if the dose for individual patients could be determined using data on blood levels, tissue distribution, excretion and inactivation of the drug in patients. The study of drug distribution kinetics in cancer chemotherapy has utilized various methods of assay like spectrophotometric, colorimetric, chromatographic, enzymatic, microbiologic and radioimmunoassay. Biological assays, especially those employing growth inhibition and promotion of microorganisms, have been more popular because of their simplicity, rapidity and low cost. These are superior to physical and chemical determination methods because they are not influenced much by various factors in the body components and show relatively high sensitivity and specificity, especially with respect to inactivated drug and metabolites. A microbiological assay using a folic acid assay method was developed. There are 3 types of microbiological assay methods, namely dilution, diffusion and turbidity. In the present studies the horizontal diffusion method of Ehrlich et. al. was adopted.