The first clinical trial by initiative of a Hospital da Luz researcher – Natália Marto , specialist in Internal Medicine – has just been published in Scientific Reports, the Nature journal. This clinical trial, in which participated 36 healthy volunteers (12 men and 24 women, half of these taking oral contraceptives), developed a new method to measure and compare the capacity of sulfonation, a metabolic process common to neurotransmitters, hormones, medication, carcinogens and other environmental compounds. This new method of measurement, the Paracetamol Sulfonation Index (PSI), is a potentially useful tool in precision medicine, for it allows to examine individual variability in the reaction to medication. Besides their publication in Scientific Reports, the trial results – entitled “A simple method to measure sulfonation in men using paracetamol as probe drug” – were also presented in the Experimental Biology congress, organized by the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Natália Marto developed this clinical trial in the context of her doctoral thesis research project, in partnership with NOVA Medical School and having Hospital da Luz Lisboa as promotor – which happens for the first time with a private hospital. The team of this clinical trial also included: The Clinical Research Centre of Hospital da Luz Learning Health (Luz Saúde company dedicated to the areas of education, research and innovation); The Pharmaceutical Services and the Service of Clinical Pathology from Hospital da Luz Lisboa; The Centre of Structural Chemistry from Instituto Superior Técnico. A second part of the clinical trial is still underway, with the purpose of assessing PSI inter-individual variability in patients with arterial hypertension. Although clinical trials are usually research studies aiming to develop new treatments “A simple method to measure sulfonation in man using paracetamol as probe drug”
