Pharmacotherapeutic Challenges of Human Space Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-07-A1.3.-A1.4.08
- Author
Dr. Lakshmi Putcha, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Johnson Space Center/USRA, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Medical events requiring immediate and long-term clinical intervention capabilities are anticipated during future space exploration missions to Moon and Mars. Failure to diagnose and adequately treat medical events in space will impact astronaut safety and mission success. Very little is known about shelf-life, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of medications in space; this knowledge gap, in addition to the lack of enabling remote diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, presents a clinical risk during future space exploration missions. The first step towards the development of a sound astronaut health risk mitigation and management plan will be the assessment of the degree and magnitude of all associated risk factors. Some of these risk factors for pharmacotherapeutics include physiological changes in the gastrointestinal tract, hepatic and renal function, infection and immune function. Concomitant changes in one or more of these physiological systems coupled with specific decrements in the cardiovascular system, bone and muscle structure and functionality warrants development of therapeutic strategies for unique spaceflight medical needs. Stability of medications in a radiation-rich space flight environment constitutes another risk factor of treatment efficacy. Further, treatments may require multiple component countermeasures to include hormone replacement, radiation protection, and organ function restoration. Pharmacotherapeutics research objectives for human space exploration program, therefore, are; 1) assessment of pharmaceutical stability of dosage forms exposed to the flight environment, 2) Estimation of organ function changes associated with PK/PD changes of medications used during space flight , 3) development of safe and effective noninvasive, sustained-release, multi-therapy dosage forms, therapeutic cocktails and delivery systems, and 4) development of enabling technologies for therapeutic management. Current research activities include development of predictive models for in flight pharmaceutical stability and shelf-life, compilation of PK/PD and drug interactions reference database, development of new non invasive pharmaceutical dosage forms, and identification of remote site intervention products and therapeutic management technologies.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-A1.3.-A1.4.08.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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