Introduction to pharmacology Part 1

Question 1

Describe the greek route of the word pharmacology

Answer 1

Pharmakos= drug and Logos = study of

Question 2

What are drugs?

Answer 2

Drugs are chemicals that alter the physiological functions of cells in a specific way

Question 3

What is pharmacodynamics?

Answer 3

Pharmacodynamics is the study of the biochemical and physiologic effects of drugs.

Question 4

What three principles does pharmacodynamics take into account?

Answer 4

• The drug receptor interaction
• Biochemical and physiological effects of the drug on the body
• relationship between dose and therapeutic response

Question 5

How do most drugs exert their effects?

Answer 5

Most drugs exert their effects by binding to specific target protein molecules.

Question 6

What are typical drug targets?

Answer 6

Classic receptors e.g. muscarinic receptors
Enzymes
Transmembrane transport proteins
Ion channels

Question 7

What is an antagonistic drug?

Answer 7

A drug that rather than stimulating its target, blocks the target to prevent binding of the natural agonist.

Question 8

What are the three different types of drug sources?

Answer 8

Natural
Semi Synthetic - prepared by chemical modifications of naturally occurring drugs
Synthetic - prepared by chemical synthesis in pharmaceutical laboratories

Question 9

What is an example of a naturally derived ophthalmic drug?

Answer 9

atropine

Question 10

What is an example of a semi-synthetic ophthalmic drug?

Answer 10

cyclopentolate

Question 11

What is an example of a synthetic ophthalmic drug?

Answer 11

Latanoprost

Question 12

What is latanoprost used for?

Answer 12

Glaucoma - it is used to reduce the pressure of the eye

Question 13

Why is cyclopentolate used over atropine to dilate the pupil?

Answer 13

Although both are closely related ( in fact closely related cyclopentolate is a modified version), cyclopentolate is preferred, as atropine dilates the eyes for far too long spanning up to a period of days.

Question 14

True or False- The lower the potency of the drug, the higher the dose needed and the greater likelihood of unwanted effects.

Answer 14

True

Question 15

What is drug specificity?

Answer 15

The act of a drug being complementary to a target binding site

Question 16

Is absolute drug specificity common?

Answer 16

No- specificity is rarely absolute, however, ideally a drug should show a high degree of specificity in terms of its binding site.

Question 17

What can increasing the dose of a drug potentially cause?

Answer 17

Side effects - Increasing the dose of the drug can cause it to affect targets other than the principal one, which can lead to side effects

Question 18

What is the drug response curve?

Answer 18

A curve showing the characteristic relationship between the dose of the drug and its pharmacologic effect.

Essentially it dictates a threshold dose until which the drug will cause no effect and then a maximum effect range after which increasing the dose will cause no extra effect.

Question 19

What is drug toxicity?

Answer 19

Basicall the side effects caused by taking the drug in its normal dose.

■Drug toxicity, also called adverse drug reaction (ADR) or adverse drug event (ADE), is defined as the “manifestations of the adverse effects of drugs administered therapeutically or in the course of diagnostic techniques”

Question 20

What is the therapeutic index?

Answer 20

Basically the increase in drug dose until it goes from therapuetic (helpful) to being adverse causing harmful reactions).

Question 21

What is the relationship between safety and therapeutic index?

Answer 21

The larger the therapeutic index the safer the drug

Question 22

True or False- genetics cause variation in the effect of therapeutic drugs

Answer 22

True - ■Any given drug can be therapeutic in some individuals but ineffective in others, and some individuals experience adverse drug effects whereas others are unaffected due to genertics - this branch of pharamacotics is referred to as pharmacogenetics.