Pharmacodynamics Flashcards
What is pharmacodynamics?
The drug’s actions and effects on the body
How do drugs target certain organs and tissues?
By interacting with specific proteins like receptors
What is the process of signal transduction?
Drug (signal)
Membrane protein (receptors) (signal detector and transducer)
Effectors
Second messanger
What is a signal cascade effect and when does it happen?
It occurs when activated effectors produce second messengers that further activate other effectors.
What is the effect of receptor activation?
Induces cellular response that lasts several seconds to hours
What are ligands?
Biologically active substances that exert its action via a receptor.
What is the difference between hydrophilic and hydrophobic ligands?
Hydrophilic ligands: interact with receptors that are found of the cell surface
Hydrophobic ligands: enter cells through the lipid bilayers of the cell membrane ti interact with receptors found inside the cell.
What are receptors?
Proteins that transduce extracellular signals and intracellular responses
How can receptors be activated?
Endogenous agonists (hormones and neurotransmitters)
Exogenous agonists (drugs)
What does the activation of receptors lead to?
Biological response
What are the different kinds of receptors?
Ionotropic receptors, ligand receptors
G protein-coupled receptors
Enzyme-linked receptors
Intracellular recptors
What part of the ligand-gated channels contains the ligand binding site?
The extracellular portion
When do the ligand-gated channels open?
When the receptor is activated by a ligand
What does the ion conducted control?
Whether an action potential is generated or inhibited
What does stimulation of the nicotinic receptor by acetylcholine result into?
Sodium influx, because sodium is positively charged it generates an action potential.
Does sodium influx increase or decrease neuronal conduction?
It increases it
What results in a chloride influx?
Stimulation of the GABA receptor
What other effect does the stimulation of GABA have?
Hyperpolarization of neurons which decreases neuronal conditions
Which receptor type has the most rapid time response?
Ligand-gated ion channels
What kind of receptors are G-protein coupled receptors?
Transmembrane proteins
What does the extracellular domain of the GPCRs interact with?
Interacts with the ligand via ligand binding site
What does the intracellular domain of the GPCRs interact with?
Interacts with a G protein or effector molecule
What are G-proteins composed of?
Three different subunits: α, β, γ.
What does the α subunit bind to?
Guanosine diphosphate, inactive G protein.
Guanosine triphosphate, active G protein.
At what point does Gα bind to a GDP molecule?
At steady state
What happens if there is binding of an antagonist to the receptor?
GTP binding to Gα increases, causing dissociation of the Ga-GTP complex from the Gβγ complex.
How can the Gα complex and Gβγ complex interact with other cellular effectors?
Usually through an enzyme, protein, or an ion channel.
What happens to enzyme-linked receptors when activated?
They undergo conformational changes resulting in increased cytosolic enzyme activity
What structure do the most common enzyme-linked receptors possess?
Tyrosine-kinase activity
What happens if an enzyme-linked receptor is activated by an agonist?
The intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity causes autophosphorylation on the receptor itself.
What does the phosphorylated receptor do to other proteins?
It phosphorylates other proteins that subsequently activate other important cellular signals.
What does the cascade of enzyme-linked receptors lead to?
Multiplication of the initial signal
What is one of the characteristics of the ligands that bind to intracellular receptors? Why?
They need to have sufficient solubility, they need to be lipophilic to cross the membrane and interact with the receptor, since the receptors are completely intracellular.
What happens when intracellular receptors are activated by an agonist?
Intracellular receptors translocate to the nucleus, dimerizes before binding to transcription factors.