Pharmacology Flashcards
What is pharmacology?
The study of the effects of drugs
What is pharmacokinetics?
How the body affects drugs
What are pharmacodynamics?
He drug affects the body
What are the different ways the body can affect a drug?
Absorption
Distribution
Metabolism
Excretion
What are receptor ligands?
Anything that acts at a receptor
What is potency?
Meaure of how well a drug works
What is an agonist?
A compound that binds to a receptor and activates it
What is an EC50?
Drug concentration that gives half the maximal response
What does efficacious mean?
More successful in producing a desired result (e.g. Drug A is more efficacious than drug B)- higher Emax
What is a partial agonist?
A drug that binds to and activates a receptor, but is not able to elicit the maximum response produced by full agonists
What does it mean if one drug is more potent than another?
Lower concentrations of it will produce a greater response
What is an antagonist?
Compound that reduce the effect of an agonist
What are the different mechanisms of antagonist action?
Competitive: Compete with agonists to bing to receptors
Non-competitive: Binds near a receptor and prevents activation.
What are cholinergic receptors and what are they activated by?
Involved in signal transduction of the somatic and autonomic nervous system.
Acetylcholine neurotransmitter
What are the cholinergic receptor agonists?
Muscarine
Nicotine
What are cholingeric receptor antagonists?
Atropine
Curare
What does affinity mean?
How well a ligand binds to a receptor
What does efficacy mean?
How well a ligand activates a receptor.
What are the actions of NSAIDs?
Analgesia
Anti-pyretics (reduce fever)
Anti-inflammatory
What are some NSAID examples?
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
How do NSAIDs work?
Inhibit COX (enzyme responsible for the breakdown of arachidonic acid to prostaglandin H2) via competitive inhibition
What are prostaglandins/ their action?
Group of lipids made at sites of tissue damage or infection that control inflammation, blood flow and clotting.
What are the two forms of COX?
COX-1 : Found normally and widely around the body
COX-2: Induced in inflammation
Is aspirin COX selective?
No- Works on COX-1 and 2.