Human nail testing: drug permeation and antifungal efficacy on ex vivo toenails

You need to know whether your topical antifungal reaches the layers where the fungus lives, and whether it kills the fungus once there.

We run permeation studies on ex vivo human toenails, healthy or onychomycosis-infected, applying your product exactly as it is used in the clinic — filed or unfiled surface, your dose per cm², your contact time.

After the remanence period the nail is decontaminated, embedded and cryo-sectioned from the dorsal surface down, so the drug is quantified layer by layer through the plate rather than as a single bulk value.

Distribution can also be imaged directly by MALDI mass spectrometry imaging.

Antifungal activity of the recovered nail layers is run with a qualified mycology laboratory and managed by us, so you deal with one contract and one report.

Published in Mycoses.

Very few laboratories in Europe offer this.