monitoring immunosuppressive drugs: 5 benefits of remote sampling

Immunosuppressive drugs are mandatory when a patient is going through procedures like organ or tissue transplantation, chemotherapy, or suffering from autoimmune diseases. This is because ISP drugs have a narrow therapeutic window. Fatal complications can develop using subtherapeutic doses.

Therapeutic drug monitoring for immunosuppressive agents helps achieve the appropriate therapeutic effect and minimize risks. Whole blood specimens were required for sampling techniques like dried blood sampling. But a blood sampling technique like microsampling can reduce blood volume requirements.

Here are 5 benefits of using microsampling for ISP drug monitoring through blood tests:

1. Reduced Need for Large Blood Samples

With devices like the Mitra Collection Kit, analysts no longer need large blood samples. When the tip connects with fluid, its porous synthetic material is saturated with the biological fluid (20 microliters) through capillary action.

The tip is then dried, removed, and the analyte extracted, quantified, and analyzed for ISP concentrations. Small-sample volumes still enable researchers to measure drug concentrations with adequate precisions, selectivity, and sensitivity. Conventional extraction methods need samples as large as 50 microliters to analyze ISP concentrations.

2. Linearity of Results

Microsampling extraction methods may produce long term linear results across the six concentrations of ISP drugs with a small margin of error. For example, in cyclosporine, microsampling can have a slop acceptability of 1+0.15 and 1+/- 0.10 in tacrolimus and everolimus.

3. Toxicological Studies Improved

Microsampling may improve toxicology studies in ISP drug monitoring at a reduced cost. As such, a smaller sample is required for the tests eliminating the need for TK Satellite groups entirely. This significantly reduces the costs of the study.

4. Remote Patient Monitoring & Sampling

The development of microsampling devices like Mitra has made it possible for researchers to collect dried blood samples remotely using remote patient monitoring techniques. This patient centered approach makes ISP monitoring manageable for the patients. They don’t need to travel long distances to provide blood samples. Organ transplant recipients can provide samples wherever they are and ship them to clinics.

5. Precise Sampling Techniques

During the administration of tacrolimus, an ISP for kidney transplant patients, precise levels of the drug are required in the bloodstream to avoid rejection. Extremely high levels of tacrolimus increase a patient’s risk of developing high blood pressure, neurotoxicity, and post-transplant diabetes mellitus. More precise sampling methods are required.

Microsampling enables researchers to obtain a sufficient number of blood samples within each dose interval without restricting sampling time.