Intro to pharmacology

Question 1

What is a drug?

Answer 1

A chemical substance of known structure, other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect

Question 2

What is pharmacology?

Answer 2

The study of mechanisms by which drugs affect the function of living systems

Question 3

What are agonists?

Answer 3

Drugs or chemical mediators that bind to a receptor producing a response

Question 4

What are antagonists?

Answer 4

-drugs that prevent or inhibit the response of an agonist
-may bind to receptor but don’t elicit a response

Question 6

What are the uses of bioassays?

Answer 6

-measures the pharmacological activity of new or chemically undefined substances
-investigate the function of endogenous mediators
-

Question 6

What are bioassays?

Answer 6

Assays in which the concentration or potency of a substance is measured by the biological response it produces

Question 6

What are the fundamental principles of pharmacology?

Answer 6

-drug action must be explicable in terms of conventional chemical interactions between drugs + tissues
-drug molecules must be ‘bound’ to something inside or outside of the cell in order to produce an effect
-drug molecules must exert some chemical influence on one or more constituents of cells in order to produce a pharmacological response

Question 6

What 4 classes of proteins are commonly targeted by drugs?

Answer 6

-enzymes
-transporters
-ion channels
-receptors

Question 6

What is the importance of knowing the structure of specific subunits?

Answer 6

Create targeted drugs to bind to them

Question 7

What is the importance of knowing where a ligand will bind to a receptor?

Answer 7

Can create a drug with a complementary shape that binds to the receptor instead

Question 7

How does CAR T kill cancer cells?

Answer 7

Uses contact-dependent signalling

Question 7

What does CAR stand for and what are they?

Answer 7

Chimeric antigen receptor.
T cells with engineered antigen added to them that specifically recognise cancer cells for destruction

Question 8

How are CARs made?

Answer 8

Inserted into genome of patients T cells to create a ‘live’ drug

Question 9

How can paracrine signalling be affected by drugs?

Answer 9

-drugs act on receptors
-drugs act on enzymes

Question 9

How is paracrine signalling affected by drugs acting on receptors?

Answer 9

-mast cells under skin detects allergens
-the activated mast cells secrete mediators e.g histamine
-medicines contain drugs that block receptors for histamine

Question 9

How is paracrine signalling affected by drugs acting on enzymes?

Answer 9

-eicosanoids are lipid-derived paracrine mediators that cause inflammation
-drugs can target enzymes that synthesise the mediators
-some drugs work by preventing breakdown of signalling molecules

Question 10

How do drugs affect neurotransmission?

Answer 10

-target ion channels
-target machinery involved in release of neurotransmitters
-drugs of abuse can target transporters involved in neurotransmission
-therapeutic drugs can target transporters required for neurotransmission
-drugs can target receptors

Question 10

How do drugs targeting ion channels affect neurotransmission?

Answer 10

-can block voltage-gated sodium ion channels
-prevents action potentials from being generated

Question 11

How does drugs targeting the machinery involved in the release of neurotransmitters affect neurotransmission?

Answer 11

-if pain has already occurred due to neurotransmitter release, it can prevent further pain by stopping more neurotransmitter from being released
e.g BoTox - produced by bacteria + cleaves proteins that are part of the synaptic machinery

Question 12

How does drugs of abuse targeting transporters involved in neurotransmission affect neurotransmission?

Answer 12

-normally there are transporter proteins on presynaptic neuron
-shuttle noradrenaline into the cell to terminate neurotransmission
-amphetamines increase noradrenaline release by displacing it from its synaptic vesicles

Question 12

How does therapeutic drugs targeting transporters required for neurotransmission affect neurotransmission?

Answer 12

-can target transporters found on cell membrane
-prevents reuptake of neurotransmitters
-used to alleviate the symptoms of neurological conditions

Question 13

Why do many drugs have side effects?

Answer 13

-caused by drugs that lack specificity
-many receptors are found in more than one organ, but the drug will bind to receptors wherever they’re located

Question 14

What does it mean if an antagonist is non selective?

Answer 14

It will affect all of the receptors of that type

Question 15

What is type 1 diabetes and how are drugs used to treat it?

Answer 15

-loss of insulin secreting cells
-drugs that mimic insulin are used

Question 16

What is type 2 diabetes and how are drugs used to treat it?

Answer 16

-loss of response to insulin
-drugs increase signalling through insulin receptor

Question 17

What is anaphylaxis and how are drugs used to treat it?

Answer 17

-allergic reaction
-adrenaline auto-injectors are used