Drug Receptor Interactions Flashcards
What is a pharmacological antagonist
Pharmacological antagonist binds to the same receptor as the agonist does. It occupies the binding site of the receptor and prevents the binding of agonist to the receptor. In this way, it prevents the activation of the receptor.
Define affinity and efficacy of a drug
Affinity-The drug’s ability to bind to a receptor
Efficacy- ability of a drug to change the receptor it is bound to in a way that will cause the receptor to produce an effect
Agonist drugs have both affinity and efficacy true or false
True
Name the types of agonists and explain how they work
Full agonist-an agonist that produces maximal effect
Partial agonist-an agonist that does not achieve maximal effect
Can act as an antagonist in the presence of a full agonist. It reduces the effect of the full antagonist
Name two differences between full and partial agonists
Full-has high efficacy
May need to occupy only a fraction of receptors to produce a maximal effect
Partial- low efficacy as compared to that of the full agonist
Needs to occupy all receptors to produce a maximal effect
It can act as a partial antagonist
What are inverse agonists
Agonists that bound to the receptor to produce an opposite effect of an agonists
They are not antagonists
Occurs in situations where the receptors show constitutive/intrinsic/basal activity.
•They act by silencing constitutively active receptors.
Define potency of agonists
Amount of a drug needed to produce a given effect
●Determined mainly by the affinity of the receptor for the drug
A small amount of drug is needed to produce an effect then that drug is said to
Be more potent
Define ED50
The amount of drug needed to produce a median response
It is a measure of agonist potency
Define relative potency
Only a relevant comparison when drugs all have the same mechanism of action and produce the same effect (of any magnitude)
It is the ED50 or one drug divided by the ED50 of another drug
To find the relative effficacy what do you do?
Find the ratio between the efficacy of one drug and the other drug
Two drugs can have the same efficacy but not the same potency and can have the same potency but not the same efficacy. True or false
True
What does the slope of a drug response curve represent
Indicator of useful dosage range (steepness of the curve)
Name four importance’s of dose response curves
Determining if a drug produces a certain desired effect
●Determining potency or dose required in producing effect
●Comparing one drug with others:
●Efficacy
Define therapeutic index
●A quantitative measure of the relative safety of a drug
Therapeutic Index =
TD50 or LD50 divided by ED50
A larger value of TI is more desirable
Name two parameters that can be used to find relative safety
Therapeutic index and LD50 being more than ED50
Therapeutic window
Dosage range which produces therapeutic effect without causing adverse effects
●A measure of the lack of overlap between DRCs of therapeutic and toxic/lethal effects.