L47-Basic Pharmacology Flashcards
What does pharmacology mean?
its the study of how living systems are affected by chemical agents
what is a drug?
any chemical agent that affects a biological system
what are the 4 different types of drugs?
- natural products e.g. plants
- synthetic e.g. generated in pharmaceutical industry
- biotechnology e.g. the use of living systems to generate therapeutic agents e.g. enzymes
- genetic e.g. integration of DNA/RNA into defensive cells like gene therapy
how do drugs work?
- Antagonists of Cell Surface Receptors
- Antagonists of Nuclear Receptors
- Enzyme Inhibitors
- Ion Channel Blockers
- Transport Inhibitors
- Inhibitors of Signal Transduction Proteins
what is Kd?
the dissociation constant, concentration of drug at 50% binding to the receptors.
what is a receptor?
A macromolecular component of the organism that binds the drug and initiates its effect
how does a drug antagonise a receptor?
some compounds bind to the receptor but don’t activate it to trigger a response.
what are the 6 different types of receptors?
- enzymes
- nucleic acids
- carriers
- ion channels
- intracellular receptors
- cell surface receptors
what are the 3 main characteristics of a drug-reptor interaction?
- saturable
- competitive
- specific and selective
larger Kd means?
ligand and receptor don’t attract each other that much
what does drug potency mean?
the concentration of the ligand required to allow the receptor from expressing a desired response
