Drugs: History, FDA, and Society Flashcards
What is pharmacology?
The basic and clinical applied science that deals with the fate and actions of drugs in the body
What are drugs?
Any substance used in the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of disease
What is the word pharmacology comprised of?
Pharmakon – poison or drugs
Logos – study or discourse of
Does the use of medicine date back to prehistoric times?
Yes
Have humans sought plant and animal products since the earliest time to combat sickness and death?
Yes
Many of these products were discovered by errors
Initial treatment caused more harm than good
Did people think that certain plants that resembled human parts would cure ailments for those parts? (doctrine of signatures)
Yes
Walnuts were thought to cure ailments of the head
Holes in the leaves of Saint Johns Wort resembles pores of the skin
What were the oldest prescriptions?
Found on clay tablets written by Sumerian physician around 3000 BC (one of the earliest urban societies)
Who promotes the idea that disease results from natural causes rather then evil spirits?
Hippocrates (5th century BC)
He believed that the body had abilities to recuperate from disease
In early years, how were medicines developed?
Isolation and use of nature substances from botanical, mineral, and animal sources
In modern times, how is medicine developed?
Chemical synthesis of compounds that have biological activity
What is quinine and how is it used?
Found in some tree bark
Still used today as a drug of choice against malaria
The first specific drug used to treat an infectious disease
When was the synthesis of arsenicals?
1910
How did the synthesis of arsenicals happen?
Sahachiro Hata and Paul Ehrlich’s synthesized arsenicals by attaching an arsenic atom to a carbon atom
What did the synthesis of arsenicals lead to?
The use of arsphenamine (first chemotherapeutic agent) to treat syphilis
How was digitalis isolated?
Use of purple foxglove (digitalis purpurea) in 1783 lead to the isolation of digitalis
What was digitalis used for?
Made a tea out of it to treat the edema of cardiac “dropsy” (congestive heart failure)
Arteries get blocked or narrowed and the heart had to work harder
Fluid is not getting cycled out of the body
Is digitalis still isolated from plants?
Yes, it is too difficult and expensive to synthesize chemically
When was morphine isolated from opium?
1805
What is opium used for?
A narcotic used for pain control
Has been used as a medical and recreational drug since prehistoric times
Source of opium is the poppy plant (seed pod)
Did isolation of morphine lead the way to techniques for the isolation of caffeine, atropine, and strychnine?
Yes
Where did coffee come from?
13th century
Originally native to east Africa
Coffee berries grow on trees
What is the caffeine that is extracted from the coffee plant?
Coffea arabica
How does caffeine work?
Stimulating the CNS, heart, and muscles
Relieves mental and physical fatigue and increases mental alertness
What is atropa belladonna?
Devil’s cherries
Entire plant is extremely poisonous
Only used externally
What type alkaloid substances have been isolated from atropa belladonna?
Atropine and scopolamine
What is atropine?
Dilates the pupils (medicinal use)
Belladonna plasters often applied after a fall to the injured or sprained part
Ingestion in excess amounts is a poison
What is scopolamine?
Extracted from Japanese belladonna
Used for motion sickness, sedative, truth serum, and mydriasis (prolonged or excessive pupil dilation)
How was salicylic acid discovered?
Willow bark is a source of salicin, which is metabolized to salicylic acid in the body
What are salicin and salicylic acid?
Chemical precursors for aspirin
How was aspirin created?
In the 1890s Herman Bayer, converted salicylic acid to the acetyl derivative
Acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin
Does willow bark and salicylates increase the risk of bleeding, ulcers, and tinnitus?
Yes
May not be a go-to because of this
What is epinephrine?
Also known as adrenaline
It is a hormone and a neurotransmitter
It was the first hormone isolated in 1897, by John Jacob Abel, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University and the father of modern pharmacology
Where is epinephrine produced?
Some neurons of the CNS
The chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla from the amino acids, phenylalanine and tyrosine
What is acetylcholine?
It is one of many neurotransmitters in the autonomic nervous system (ANS)
It acts on both the peripheral and central nervous system
It is the only neurotransmitter used in the motor division of the somatic nervous system
How does acetylcholine act in cardiac tissue?
Has an inhibitory effect
Lowers heart rate
Can acetylcholine be excitatory at neuromuscular junctions in skeletal muscle?
Yes
What is sulfa?
An antibiotic
Discovered by changing the chemical makeup of red dye
Was able to arrest infections caused by streptococcal bacteria
The first effective treatments for pneumonia, meningitis, and other bacterial diseases
Did sulfa pre-date penicillin?
Yes
Did medics during WWII carry sulfa powder and sulfa tablets?
Yes, it greatly reduced mortality
Is sulfa used today?
Yes, to treat infections of the urinary tract
What is penicillin?
Accidentally discovered that a mold (penicillium notatum) inhibited growth of staphylococcus aureus
Active ingredient was penicillin
Turned into a usable product in 1940
What is the FDA?
A regulatory agency that is involved in regulation of drug development
The need for the FDA evolved in response to a public need
Prior to and at the start of the 20th century, tampering and mislabeling of food and drugs was common
What was the pure food and drug act in 1906?
Prompted by unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the meat packing industry, Congress created the FDA
What were the only requirements of the pure food and drug act?
Drugs meets standards of strength and purity
The burden of proof was on the FDA to show that the drug was false/fraudulent before it could be taken off the market
When was the food and drug cosmetic act passed by congress?
In 1938
Happened in response to the strep-elixir incident (mixing drug with anti-freeze)
What was the food, drug, and cosmetic act of 1938?
Required proof of a drug’s safety and purity
Mandated that manufacturers obtain pre-market approval from the FDA contingent on demonstrated safety
Regulated labeling and packaging of drug products
What was the durham-humphrey act of 1952?
Granted the FDA authority to determine which drugs may be sold without a prescription
FDA examined a drug’s toxicity and the ability for someone to self-diagnose
OTC drugs are sold with lower dosage than their prescription counterparts and used primarily to treat symptoms, not cure diseases
What was the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act?
Required proof of efficacy as well as safety for new drugs and drugs approved since 1938 (does it work)
Established guidelines for adverse event reporting, clinical testing, and advertising (drugs must be appropriately labeled)
What was the orphan drug amendment of 1983?
It provides manufacturers incentives, such as tax deductions for their clinical trials, to manufacture drugs that treat rare diseases (diseases that affect <200,000 people)
Otherwise, they don’t have incentive to create them