Authors
Nikunj D Patel, Yuchen Lu, Khondaker Miraz Rahman, K L Andrew Chan
Published in
Analytica chimica acta. Volume 1421. Pages 346043. Nov 01, 2026. Epub Jul 29, 2026.
Abstract
Membrane permeability plays a vital role in oral drug absorption and is one of the important reasons for attrition of promising drug candidates in early-stage drug discovery. Conventional in vitro permeability assays and metabolomics-based approaches are informative but are often destructive, labor-intensive, costly and limited to endpoint measurements. Here, we report a live-cell attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy platform for label-free, cost-effective, non-destructive monitoring of biochemical responses in Caco-2 cells following exposure to model drugs spanning multiple Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) classes.
IR spectra in the biochemical fingerprint region (1800-950 cm-1) were then analysed using principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering. Distinct spectral signatures were observed for highly permeable versus poorly permeable compounds, with discriminatory features dominated by protein (amide I/II), lipid and phosphate-associated bands. Drugs that highly permeate through membranes left a clearly different spectral trail compared to those that do not. Importantly, chemometric separation was achieved within the early hours of exposure, demonstrating the potential of live-cell ATR-FTIR spectroscopy as a rapid, low-cost and non-destructive complement to conventional permeability screening assays.
These findings support the use of in situ live-cell ATR-FTIR spectroscopy as a promising approach for predicting drug permeability class in intestinal epithelial cells during early drug discovery.
PMID:
42702459
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Sep 2026.
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