Physical characterization of blood substitutes by carbon-fluorine spectroscopy

Abstract

Blood substitutes, aka artificial oxygen carriers, such as perfluorocarbon emulsions, aim at improving oxygen transport and oxygen unloading to the tissue. Thereby, artificial oxygen carriers can replace allogeneic blood transfusions and improve tissue oxygenation, subsequently contributing to the function of organs with marginal oxygen supply. Carbon-Fluorine Spectroscopy (CFS) aka Spectro-Fluor patented by Fluorotronics, Inc., is a green, disruptive, non-destructive, non-invasive and progressive analytical technology that was shown reliable and promising for various (nano-) pharmaceutical and bio-medical applications. The key feature of CFS is based on the capability to specifically, sensitively and rapidly detect carbon-fluorine bond(s) in the fingerprint spectral area of 550-850 cm^-1 allowing F-imaging as well as qualitative and quantitative characterization of fluoro-organics in vitro, ex-vivo or in-vivo. In this study, we show Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), such as Perfluorobron (PFB) and Perfluorodecalin (PFD) can be easily, reliably and rapidly detected by CFS in various containers, especially under visible excitation (510.6 nm), opening a possible avenue for enhancing blood substitutes product security (anti-counterfeiting) or performing advanced metabolic and toxicological studies of these compounds in vivo (e.g. pharmacokinetics, bioavailability). Indeed, the range of specific signal wavelength related to the C-F bond in PFCs was besides confirmed by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations.