pH partition theory is a theory developed in the early 20th century as an attempt to explain drug bioavailability in humans. It describes the tendency for weak acids to accumulate in basic fluid compartments, and weak bases to accumulate in acidic compartments. The negative charge of deprotonated acids in basic solutions and, conversely, the positive charge state of weak bases in acidic solutions is used to explain this phenomenon as electric charge decreases membrane permeability. pH partition theory is somewhat useful in explaining the accumulation of weak acids and bases; however, many other factors influence molecular transport in living systems, so it is not a general rule.
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References
Talevi, Alan; Bellera, Carolina L. (2021), "pH Partition Theory", The ADME Encyclopedia, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–8, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51519-5_48-1, ISBN 978-3-030-51519-5, retrieved 2025-03-11 978-3-030-51519-5 ↩
Swietach, Pawel; Hulikova, Alzbeta; Patiar, Shalini; Vaughan-Jones, Richard D.; Harris, Adrian L. (2012-04-26). Saks, Valdur (ed.). "Importance of Intracellular pH in Determining the Uptake and Efficacy of the Weakly Basic Chemotherapeutic Drug, Doxorubicin". PLOS ONE. 7 (4): e35949. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...735949S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035949. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3338554. PMID 22563426. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3338554 ↩
Talevi, Alan; Bellera, Carolina L. (2021), "pH Partition Theory", The ADME Encyclopedia, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–8, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51519-5_48-1, ISBN 978-3-030-51519-5, retrieved 2025-03-11 978-3-030-51519-5 ↩