Glossary of Terms Flashcards
What is an agonist?
Is a drug that binds to, and activates the receptor. Producing the same pharmacological response as the endogenous ligand.
What is a partial agonist?
A drug that binds to, and activates the receptor. However, only produces 50% of the pharmacological response as the endogenous ligand.
What does a competitive antagonist do?
Binds to and inactivates the receptors.
What does a non-competitive antagonist do?
Binds away from the agonists binding site, therefore limiting the receptors activation.
What is binding affinity?
The strength (or binding interaction) between a drug and its receptor.
What does the term concurrent mean?
When 2 drugs are administered at the same time (or together).
What is the dissociation constant?
It is used to describe the affinity for binding of a drug to its taget site, commonly abbreviated as Kd.
What does efficacy mean?
The degree to which the drug is likely to produce an effect in a controlled environment (such as a laboratory setting).
What is pharmacodynamics?
It is the study of quantifying the relationship between the concentration of a drug and the patients response to the drug.
What is pharmacogenomics?
It is the study of how an individual’s genes would affect how the patient responds to a drug.
What is pharmacokinetics?
Is the study of what the body does to the drug. The main 4 parameters of pharmacokinetics include absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
What does potency mean?
It is the measure of a drug’s concentration required to produce a defined effect.
What is Therapeutic Index, and how is it calculated?
It is the ratio of a drugs concentration to cause a therapeutic effect to the concentration it causes toxicity.
TI is calculated as TD50 / ED50, where:
TD50 refers to dose of drug that exhibits toxicity in 50% of the population.
ED50 refers to dose of drug that produces the desired effect in 50% of the population.
Briefly explain what a Therapeutic Window is?
Is the range of a drugs concentration that provides the desired therapeutic effect without causing significant adverse effects.
