PFG NMR Study of Intra-cellular Drug Uptake in Xenopus laevis Oocyte

Intra-cellular drug uptake in Xenopus laevis oocyte has been elucidated using localized MR spectroscopy (MRS) and PFG NMR techniques at a 600 $MH_z$(Bruker, 14.1 T) NMR spectrometer. The localized MRS has been done with a homemade probe, and shows the intra-cellular uptake of nicotinamide. The self-diffusion of the molecule in Xenopus oocyte was obtained by PFG NMR technique. The measured data are well fitted with a linear combination of two exponential functions, which shows that there are two types of drug molecules, intra-and extra-cellular molecules. Diffusion coefficients of intra- and extra-cellular drug molecules are 3.7 $\times$ $10^{-11}$ $\m^{2}/s$and 6.4 $\times$ $10^{-10}$ $\m^{2}/s$, respectively. In the weighting factors there is shown that about 5% of drug molecule is inside the cells. These techniques can be used for drug screening in molecule-, cell-, and tissue-based preclinical test.