Intro to Pharmacodynamics (K1)

Question 1

What is the definition of a drug?

Answer 1

A substance that is intended for the use in the diagnosis, cure, relief, treatment or prevention of disease, or intended to affect the structure of the body

Question 2

what kind of drugs are there?

Answer 2

chemicals, biologics, combination (cell + drugs + scaffold), pro drugs

Question 3

Describe chemical drugs and tell me an advantage

Answer 3

• A natural or synthetic molecule
• Potentially easier to mass produce and synthesise quickly
• More stable chemically than biologics

Question 4

name 3 types of chemical drugs

Answer 4

• Painkillers, anti-inflammtories, contraceptive pill, antibiotics
• Aspirin, Penicillin, Doxorubicin

Question 5

What are biologics?

Answer 5

A drug produced from living organisms or contain components of living organisms

Question 6

Give some examples of biologics

Answer 6

• Any proteins or peptides
• Insulin, monoclonal antibodies, cytokines and enzymes

Question 7

Explain what CAR T cells are and how they are made

Answer 7

Question 8

Explain how mRNA Vaccines work

Answer 8

1) A strand of mRNA that corresponds to the Viral receptor (eg, SARS) in injected
2) Host cells uptake the mRNA and produce the foreign receptor
3) Lymphocytes recognise these foreign receptors in the blood, bind and begin producing Antibodies

Question 9

What is a bacteriophage?

Answer 9

A virus that injects its DNA into target Bacteria

Question 10

What is the mechanism by which a bacteriophage works?

Answer 10

1) The bacteriophage finds the target bacteria, landing on the cell membrane
2) It injects its DNA into the bacteria
3) This DNA reprogrammes the cell ribosomes to make more Bacteriophages and inhibits the cells ability to function or replicate.
4) The bacteria eventually undergoes lysis releasing the new bacteriophage

Question 11

What are cell derived particles?

Answer 11

Exosomes and extracellular Vesicles

Question 12

What is the mechanism of action of Extracellular vesicles like exosomes

Answer 12

Exosomes are essentially packages comprised of a lipid bilayer, specific content that has instructions for the target cell.
eg. They have been used to send messages to knee cartilage cells to self repair after serious meniscus injuries

Question 13

Give an example of when cells scaffolds and drugs have been used

Answer 13

Cells + Drugs + Scaffold
In animal trials, metal rods with bone growth promoting drugs and osteoblasts has resulted in promising results of successful surgery

Question 14

What are pro-drugs?

Answer 14

In the case of pro-drugs, what is delivered is not the active drug. The administered chemical needs to undergo some form of transition in the body before it is active

Question 15

Why might pro-drugs be useful?

Answer 15

The drug may be harmful to certain tissues but not in the gut, so a prodrug that becomes active in the acidic environment of the GI would be better

Question 16

Give an example of a pro-drug

Answer 16

Lisdexamphetamine: The active drug is called dexamphetamine and is used to treat ADHD. It becomes activated through metabolism in the small intestine

Question 17

Why is it important to know what type of drug we are delivering?

Answer 17

This affects how the drug is formulated and also how it will be delivered

Question 18

Why is insulin injected and not swallowed?

Answer 18

Insulin is a protein that would be digested in the gut, so not effective

Question 19

What is the definition of pharmacodynamics

Answer 19

This looks at how drug biochemically, biophysically effects the body at both a molecular and larger scale.

Question 20

Describe some features associated to cell membrane receptors

Answer 20

• Drugs interact by binding to receptors
• When a receptor is binded to this causes conformation change and causes a cascade of reactions in the cell.
• Receptors are very specific

Question 21

Drugs binding to a receptor can be agonist or antagonists, what does this mean?

Answer 21

agonists: When the drug binds to the receptor it initiates a cellular response
Antagonist: The drug binds to a cell receptor but inhibits a cellular response, by blocking it from other chemicals.

Question 22

What types of Antagonists can you get?

Answer 22

Surmountable and Insurmountable
Competitive and non-competitive and uncompetitive

Question 23

What is meant by a surmountable agonist? and by extension an insurmountable agonist.

Answer 23

This means that the effect of the antagonist can be overcome by increasing the concentration of agonist present.

insurmountable means that no matter how much agonist present, the effect has been blocked

Question 24

Explain the mechanisms of action of competitive, non-competitive and uncompetitive antagonists

Answer 24

competitive: Compete for the same active site
non-competitive: Binds to an allosteric site, inducing a conformation change to the active site through that.
Uncompetitive: Once the agonist has bound the the active site, the antagonist binds to the enzyme substrate complex, blocking further action.

Question 25

Describe the graphs of conc. of agonist (log) (x-axis) vs Response (y-axis) for all 3 mechanisms. Competitive, uncompetiitve, non-competitive

Answer 25