Antimicrobial Medication Stability During Space Flight

The current vision for manned space flight involves lunar and Martian exploration within the next two decades. In order for NASA to achieve these goals, a significant amount of preparation is necessary to assure crew health and safety. A mission critical component of this vision centers around the stability of pharmaceutical preparations contained in the space medicine kits. Evidence suggests that even brief periods of space flight have significant detrimental effects for some pharmaceutical formulations. The effects observed include decreases in physical stability of drug formulations of sufficient magnitude to effect bioavailability. Other formulations exhibit decreases in chemical stability resulting in a loss of potency. Physical or-chemical instability of pharmaceutical formulations i n space medicine kits could render the products ineffective. Of additional concern is the potential for formation of toxic degradation products as a result of the observed product instability. This proposal addresses Question number 11 of Clinical Capabilities in the Critical Path Roadmap. In addition, this proposal will reduce the risks and/or enhance the capabilities of humans exposed to the environments of space flight or an extraterrestrial destination by identifying drugs that may be unstable during spaceflight.