Drug discovery Flashcards
Pharmacology
The study of the development, design, structure and action of drugs, focusing on the effects in biological systems.
Toxicology
The study of poisons and toxins, their action and the investigation of drug-induced side-effects.
Drug-receptor interactions
Understanding how drugs interact with cellular receptors to iduce responses.
Pharmacodynamics
Basic concepts involving how drugs move through the body and affect it.
Organ-selective toxicity
Types of toxins that have specific effects on certain organs, leading to targeted toxicity and side effects.
Agonists vs antagonists
Differentiate between agonists, which activate receptors, and antagonists, which block receptors.
Use of pharmacological agents
How pharmacological agents and toxins serve as tools for assessing biomolecular or pathophysiological processes.
Preclinical testing strategies
Testing toxicity in vivo and ex vivo
Assessing drugs on cell function and mechanism of action.
Clinical development phases
Phase 0 micro dosing
Phase 1 test on healthy patients
Phase 2 test on selected patients
Phase 3 test on large groups
Phase 4 after-marketing surveillance
Biochemical target selection
Selecting protein based targets like receptors, enzymes and transporters.
High-throughput screening
Process using large compound libraries to measure the functional activity a substance will have on target protein.
Techniques of rational drug design
Receptor-fit modelling
Pharmacophore-base design.
Sex and gender differences
Sex and gender have major implications in pharmacodynamics, essential information for personalized drugs.
Ethical and regulatory framework.
Ethical approval and regulatory oversight and required during drug trials to ensure widespread drug safety.
