Pharmacology Flashcards
What are three important aspects of drug absorption?
- Lag time
- Extent of absorption (bioavailability)
- Rate of absorption
What are the four main pharmacokinetic principles and what does each determine?
- Volume of distribution - loading dose
- Clearance - maintenance dose
- Half-life - time to (and from) steady state
- Bioavailability - determines correct non-IV dose
Why is there a linear relationship in first order drug elimination?
Because most drugs are designed to work at low concentrations and enzymes that eliminate poisons are fairly non-specific and thus have a high km.
What determines and is described by ke on a log plot?
The slope of the decay line.
What two phases of serum concentration decay are seen with IV administration?
Rapid phase = distribution phase (into tissues)
Slower phase = elimination
What’s the definition of bioavailability?
The fractional amount of a given dose of drug that gets into the blood. Represented by F.
What does F of a drug depend on if it is administered orally?
The amount absorbed and the amount metabolized by first-pass metabolism through the liver.
What could alter a drug’s bioavailability?
- Liver function (for those undergoing first pass)
- Changes in gastric acidification
- If food is competing for transport, binding the drug, inhibiting an enzyme, etc.
What is Vd?
A ratio of how much drug led to what concentration. Empirical parameter that may or may not describe the body space into which the drug can diffuse. Directly represents only the concentration in blood.
What can affect Vd?
Disease states
Amount of body fat that can act as a sink
What is the definition of clearance?
The conceptual amount of blood or other fluid from which all drug is removed per unit time.
What is the half life of a drug a function of?
Both clearance and volume of distribution.
What are the four things drug behavior is dependent on and which can you choose?
- Formulation - you can choose
- Route - you can choose
- Patient
- Drug
Where will weak acids be absorbed best?
In the intestine.
They are uncharged in acidic environments and thus absorbed well in the stomach but the time spent and surface area of the intestines makes up for this.
What is the first pass effect?
Drugs absorbed in the GI tract enter portal system and are delivered to liver before entering systemic circulation.
What two things is lag time for absorption dependent on?
Product formulation and gastric emptying
What two things does the mAgnitude of the first pass effect depend on?
Liver blood flow and capacity of liver to metabolize drug
What are the 3 main types of drug metabolism?
- Cytochrome p450s - predominant phase 1 enzymes, mostly oxidative, anything that is a substrate is also an inhibitor, wide range of substrates, inducible
- Glucoronide synthesis - er system, wide range of substrates, inducible, products more hydrophilic
- Non microsomal enzymes - usually not induced but can be competitively inhibited
Why does the rate of drug loss increase almost linearly with drug concentration?
Because most enzymes of drug metabolism have very high metabolism and are not near saturation at therapeutic concentrations.
What are the three main enzymes that can get rid of a poison?
Oxidases
Hydrolases
Conjugating enzymes
What is the main difference in elimination of drugs obeying zero order kinetics?
The eliminations pathways get saturated so clearance decreases and half life increases with increasing drug concentration.
Why ate some drugs designed to be absorbed through the oral mucosa?
To avoid the first pass effect.
What does a significant lag time usually reflect?
Uptake of the drug at the initial site of application.
What is the protein binder for weak hydrophobic acids and for weak bases?
Albumin and alpha glycoprotein
What are the three ways you should think about distribution of a drug in the body?
From the blood
To tissue sites of action
From tissue depots (fat, etc.)
What are four determinants of a drug’s capacity to be filtered by the glomeruli?
Protein binding
Molecular size and charge
Glomerular integrity (damage can allow protein bound molecules to be filtered
Number of nephrons
Where can weak acids and bases be passively reabsorbed in the kidney?
The collecting duct
What are the two major determinants of passive transport in the kidney?
Urinary ph and flow rate
When should you draw blood to get an accurate serum concentration when a drug has a long distribution phase?
Just prior to the next dose
Which receptors are located in the nucleus or translocated there after binding?
Receptors for lipid soluble, membrane permeable molecules
What does the occupancy model of drug receptor interactions state?
Magnitude of effect is proportional to concentration of drug receptor complex (ex. 50% of receptors filled yields 50% max effect)
What are the two ways to define Kd?
- Ratio of reverse and forward rate constants
2. Concentration of free drug at which 50% of receptors are bound
What limits K1?
The rates of diffusion of the molecules involved
What is the difference between potency and efficacy?
Potency is concentration of drug necessary to produce a given effect - related to affinity of drug for receptor. Efficacy is magnitude of effect that can be produced by a drug - reflected in plateau of dose response curve. Efficacy is more useful because you can overcome potency by giving more drug.
How might you get rid of a non competitive antagonist?
Dilute it
What do full agonists, partial agonists, and inverse agonists do to the active inactive equilibrium of receptors?
Full - shifts fully to active
Partial - shifts partially to active (can still be more or less potent than full)
Inverse - greater affinity for inactive
How many different alpha beta and gamma gpcr subunits are there?
Roughly 20, 5, 12
Why does GTP replace GDP so readily when the G protein encounters and activated receptor?
Because it is abundant in the cytoplasm
What is the rate limiting step in signal transduction through GPCRs?
Dissociation of GDP from alpha subunit