I've recently listened to an excellent interview by Derek Decoded, where he has a discussion with Janoshik Founder Peter Magic regarding various topics relating to peptide analysis. I highly, highly recommend listening to this if you have any interest at all in the science and logistics that go into testing peptides, it's fantastic.
My interest was piqued by their discussions regarding bacteriostatic water vs sterile water for injection. For context, I'm very new to the pep world and also happen to work in healthcare where reconstituting (often) intravenous medications is sometimes part of my job, and certainly something done by nurses all the time. I had never heard of bacteriostatic water till getting into peptides, and I recently had a thorough look at work if any such water was available for usage on the wards/theatre with no luck, only sterile water for injection and sterile saline was available.
Some points Peter makes in this video summarised
Janoshik utilises sterile water for reconstitution of peptides they test. He reports this water is quite comparable to sterile water for injection (SWI) and not a separate 'high level' pharmaceutical grade water
BAC water is exceptionally hard to access in EU, and when they've looked into this in previous years the benefits of BAC have been outweighed by issues of degradation, local reactions
Peter has kept a 100ml multi-use sterile water container for 8-12 years, intermittently used for contact lens solution for his wife (lol) and has recently re-tested this this year and found it to still be sterile
Believes if you use a sterile needle with decent technique into a sealable container there is nothing to introduce bacteria
Even if a small amount of bacteria is introduced, there is no nutrition available for the bacteria to replicate using
Chinese BAC water frequently contain NO benzyl alcohol, fail sterility and vary significantly in % of benzyl alcohol
Now obviously appropriate technique is key, but I'd argue it's frankly not hard to perfect with a few readily available youtube tutorials. True, despite perfect technique there will always be routes to introduction bacteria such as needle exposure to air. However, at least in the healthcare space, this isn't, in my experience at least, considered a significant clinical risk. We certainly don't achieve perfect sterility using a laminar flow hood when reconstituting medications given directly into the bloodstream.
I have no doubt all going well, BAC water introduces a margin of safety for someone with sloppy access technique or deciding to reuse needles (please don't do this). That said, we also have seen many downsides of various BAC waters including cloudiness, gelling requiring various fixes. This is not to mention the rising cost of the 'gold standard' BAC such as Hospira, and the question of degree of degradation of peptides once reconstituted, once again, Janoshik utilises pure water for their testing, how much more are we degrading peps with BAC for our personal use? How accurate are these chinese BACs in terms of Benzyl Alcohol %?
Certainly length of time you use a reconstituted vial would be a factor given recurrent access, but surely no one is using a vial for 8-12 years, and surely Peter wasn't using the best of techniques to access water for contact lens cleaning?
Food for thought. I would be keen to what others think on BAC vs SWI, Pros, cons and where you land. I'd also like to hear if there are any known cases of proven bacterial growth in old reconstituted peps.
I’ll also be using SWI from now on and will keep this thread updated with any episodes of sepsis
My interest was piqued by their discussions regarding bacteriostatic water vs sterile water for injection. For context, I'm very new to the pep world and also happen to work in healthcare where reconstituting (often) intravenous medications is sometimes part of my job, and certainly something done by nurses all the time. I had never heard of bacteriostatic water till getting into peptides, and I recently had a thorough look at work if any such water was available for usage on the wards/theatre with no luck, only sterile water for injection and sterile saline was available.
Some points Peter makes in this video summarised
Janoshik utilises sterile water for reconstitution of peptides they test. He reports this water is quite comparable to sterile water for injection (SWI) and not a separate 'high level' pharmaceutical grade water
BAC water is exceptionally hard to access in EU, and when they've looked into this in previous years the benefits of BAC have been outweighed by issues of degradation, local reactions
Peter has kept a 100ml multi-use sterile water container for 8-12 years, intermittently used for contact lens solution for his wife (lol) and has recently re-tested this this year and found it to still be sterile
Believes if you use a sterile needle with decent technique into a sealable container there is nothing to introduce bacteria
Even if a small amount of bacteria is introduced, there is no nutrition available for the bacteria to replicate using
Chinese BAC water frequently contain NO benzyl alcohol, fail sterility and vary significantly in % of benzyl alcohol
Now obviously appropriate technique is key, but I'd argue it's frankly not hard to perfect with a few readily available youtube tutorials. True, despite perfect technique there will always be routes to introduction bacteria such as needle exposure to air. However, at least in the healthcare space, this isn't, in my experience at least, considered a significant clinical risk. We certainly don't achieve perfect sterility using a laminar flow hood when reconstituting medications given directly into the bloodstream.
I have no doubt all going well, BAC water introduces a margin of safety for someone with sloppy access technique or deciding to reuse needles (please don't do this). That said, we also have seen many downsides of various BAC waters including cloudiness, gelling requiring various fixes. This is not to mention the rising cost of the 'gold standard' BAC such as Hospira, and the question of degree of degradation of peptides once reconstituted, once again, Janoshik utilises pure water for their testing, how much more are we degrading peps with BAC for our personal use? How accurate are these chinese BACs in terms of Benzyl Alcohol %?
Certainly length of time you use a reconstituted vial would be a factor given recurrent access, but surely no one is using a vial for 8-12 years, and surely Peter wasn't using the best of techniques to access water for contact lens cleaning?
Food for thought. I would be keen to what others think on BAC vs SWI, Pros, cons and where you land. I'd also like to hear if there are any known cases of proven bacterial growth in old reconstituted peps.
I’ll also be using SWI from now on and will keep this thread updated with any episodes of sepsis
. Perhaps i’m reading too much into this by thinking he’s implying sterile water is fine, but isn’t willing to say it out right given liability.
