Lecture 21 - Chemistry of drugs in action

Question 1

What should you use to neutralise stomach acid?

Answer 1

mild alkaline materials that don’t release gases (e.g magnesium/aluminium hydroxide)

Question 2

What are alginates

Answer 2

polymers which expand on ‘wetting’ in the presence of multivalent cations forming rafts in the stomach reducing acid reflux

Question 3

Why is administering drugs systemically not always good?

Answer 3

drug will get almost everywhere, will target receptors throughout body and not specific target area

Question 4

What receptors do antihistamines target?

Answer 4

H1 receptors and not H2

Question 5

To ensure a drug binds to H2 receptor but not H1 what needs to be tested?

Answer 5

-the compound binds to H2 receptor with good affinity
-that compounds don’t bind to h1 (could be determined using assays)
-that compounds reduce acid secretions ex-vivo
-that compounds work in vivo and aren’t toxic