Introduction/Drug Action Flashcards
what is pharmacology?
the study of all compounds that interact with the body and includes knowledge of the interactions between these compounds and body constituents at any level of organization
what is a drug?
any chemical substance that affects a living system
what is toxicology?
the study of harmful effects of drugs
why are children more vulnerable to toxins?
because their metabolism isn’t as efficient and have different surface/area ratio
what is the risk-benefit evaluation?
all drugs will have side effects, but we must make sure that the benefits outweigh the risks
what is proteomics?
the study of proteomes, or the entire complement of proteins expressed in a certain cell, tissue, organ system, or the body
what is pharmacogenomics?
understanding genetic differences amongst people and how these differences influence one’s response to drugs
what are the types of drug names?
- chemical
- generic
- trade
what is pharmacodynamics?
what the drug does to the body
what is pharmacokinetics?
what the body does to the drug
what is therapeutics? what are indications and contraindications?
- therapeutics: using a drug to treat or prevent disease
- ind: when you should use the drug and what it is used for
- cont: when you should not use the drugs
what is bioavailability?
how much of the drug is available to get into the systemic circulation, after getting through the liver
what are the methods of administration?
- oral
- parenteral (injection)
- inhalation
- topical
- sublingual
what are the advantages and disadvantages of oral administration?
- adv: easy, cheap, convenient
- dis: stomach acidity may destroy the chemical composition of certain drugs (particularly biologicals), and liver inactivation can act really strongly on some compounds
what are the different injection methods?
- subcutaneous (under skin)
- intravenous (in bloodstream)
- intramuscular
- in cerebrospinal fluid
- intraperitoneal
what are the advantages of injecting a drug?
fast, accurate, and controlled absorption
what are the advantages of inhaling a drug?
- easy to administer
- rapid systemic effect since lungs have huge surface area
what are the advantages of sublingual drug administration?
- rapid
- no first-pass
what does the time course and peak concentration look like for Iv, oral, and rectal?
- IV: high initial peak and drops quickly as it gets distributed
- oral: slower rise since it takes time for it to be absorbed by GI and lower peak due to first-pass
- rectal: slow absorption and lower peak level
what are the two types of drug selectivity?
- selective: mostly targets one area
- generalized: acts on all systems
what is the a drug receptor?
a macromolecular protein target to which endogenous ligand or exogenous agonist/antagonists can bin to to cause cellular response
what are the different action of receptors?
- autocrine (acts on itself)
- endocrine (chemical transported through blood)
- paracrine (chemical acts on nearby cell)
- juxtracrine (chemical that acts on neighboring cell via connection)
what does the affinity of a drug to an ion channel depend on? what does this tell us about the drug?
- depends on the membrane potential and channel cycling frequency
- tells us how quickly the drug will bind
where do natriuretic peptide receptors activate cellular responses?
kidney and the heart
how do the response times differ on different types of receptors?
- ion: fast to respond (msecs)
- GPCR: 2nd messenger must be activated (secs)
- enzymes: blocking or stimulating enzymes (mins)
- DNA-linked: translocation, transcription, translation, enzymatic activity (hrs)
what do cancer treatments affect/alter?
alter cell division/reproduction process with microtubule destabilizers/stabilizers (alters mitosis)
are receptors static or dynamics? explain.
they are dynamic
- there is constant turnover (synthesis, transport, stimulation, recycling, resynthesis, etc. )
- cell can respond by changing number of receptors at the PM
explain the concept of biological variation and how that connects to quantifying and comparing the effect of a drug (what type of graphs are used?).
- everyone is different due to their genetics and the environment
- graph plotting drug dosage and number of people responding we see a normal distribution since most people will respond with moderate dose but others need more or less
- dose-response curve: plots the cumulative percentage of people responding to a dose (usually log scale is used)
what is the ED-50?
the dose required to produce an effect on 50% of the population
what do you use a dose response curve for?
- comparing drugs: some may be more potent than other (use a lower dose for same effect) and might want to use the least or most potent depending on other factors
- studying the magnitude of drug effect: study effect on single cell, organ system, or in an individual
what is the following on a dose response curve: threshold, ceiling dose, potency
- threshold: it is the minimum dose to see an effect
- ceiling dose: does where effect levels off and cannot get higher
- potency: if more towards the left is more potent and if more to the right, less potent
what is receptor occupancy? what are spare receptors?
- it is the percent of receptors that are occupied for a specific response - usually less than 100%
- spare receptors are the ‘fail-safe’ mechanisms - they are the receptors that are not being used
what is the efficacy of a drug?
the proportion of receptors that are forced into their active conformation when occupied by a drug and that give the desired effect
what is a partial vs full agonist? what are the benefits of partial agonists?
- full: binds to receptor and leads to large response
- partial: binds but leads to small response (low efficacy)
- benefit: can lead to less adverse effects, can block access to full agonist by giving a partial agonist
what is a competitive vs non-competitive antagonist and how do they affect the dose-response curve?
- competitive: bind to same site, will shift the curve to the right and when given at VERY high concentration, it can decrease the maximum response agonist
- non-competitive: bind to different site (allosteric), will lower the peak of the curve
what is an irreversible vs reversible antagonist?
- irreversible: binds irreversibly and decreases the number of available receptors, so body has to synthesize more/ increase turnover
- reversible: binds reversibly, is most common one (irreversible can cause toxicity)
what is TD50?
the dose required to produce a toxic effect in 50% of the population
what is LD50?
the dose required to produce a lethal effect in 50% of the population
what is the therapeutic index?
the ratio of toxic to the therapeutic effect; TI = TD50/ED50