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No true immunocytochemistry (ICC) for drugs nor its application to pharmacokinetic studies is available. Recently, our studies have shown that ICC for drugs is extremely useful for such studies by utilizing easy and safe techniques, and gives direct evidence of drug localization. We have therefore developed antibodies and a series of pretreatment conditions for the immunodetection of drugs and have localized sites of drug uptake or accumulation in several tissues of rats following the administration of drugs. This review describes preparation of anti-drug antibody, specificity of antibody, fixation of drug in situ in rat tissues and cells, treatment of paraffin section specimens prior to immunoreaction, precision, and their application to a variety of types of antibiotics anti-cancer anthracyclines daunorubicin, doxorubicin, and epirubicin, bleomycin analog peplomycin, antimicrobial agents gentamicin, and amoxicillin. ICC for the anti-cancer anthracyclines demonstrated that the drug accumulates in a characteristic pattern in the heart, liver, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, and hair follicles, which represent the sites targeted by the drug toxicity. Some, but not all, of these drug accumulations are associated with the induction of apoptosis. It was also noted that there are striking differences in accumulation among the anthracyclines in rat tissues, maybe contributing the mechanisms of the differences in anti-tumor activities of the anthracyclines. Both ICCs for gentamicin and peplomycin identified characteristic necrotic-like cells in the specific sites of the kidney, suggesting the sites are readily affected by some chemotherapeutic agents. ICC for amoxicillin demonstrated that the sites of the drug accumulation in small intestine, liver and kidney are closely correlated with the specific sites in which certain transporter systems for penicillin occur. Thus, an ICC method is a potential new tool for pharmacokinetic studies of wide variety types of drugs containing a primary amino group(s) in their molecules.
Rose et al. (Wed,) studied this question.