Pharmacology Flashcards
What is pharmacology?
The branch of medicine concerned with the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs.
What are the two classes of interactions in pharmacology and their definition?
- Pharmacodynamics: The effects of the drug on the body
- Pharmacokinetics: The way the body affects the drug with time.
What are the four things that can affect the drug within the body?
Absorption, distribution, metabolism and secretion.
Who is the father of pharmacology?
Jonathan Pereira
What is a receptor?
A molecule inside or on the surface of a cell that binds to a specific substance and causes a specific effect in the cell.
What are the four main classes of receptors based on structure and function?
- Ligand-gated ion channels (Ionotropic receptors)
- G protein-coupled receptors (metabotropic)
- Kinase-linked receptors
- Nuclear receptors
Define ligand
A substance that is bound to a protein
What is the time scale for each class of receptor?
- Ionotropic- Milliseconds
- Metabotropic- Seconds
- Kinase linked receptors- Hours
- Nuclear receptors- Hours
2 Examples of ionotropic receptors
- Nicotine
-Acetylcholine receptor
Two examples of metabotropic receptors
- Muscarinic
- Acetylcholine receptor
Example of Kinase-linked receptors
Cytokine receptors
Example of Nuclear receptors
Oestrogen receptor
What is one example of membrane-bound receptors, and in what category are they?
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors
-Ligand-Gated Ion Channels.
What is the function of Ligand-Gated Ion channels? Is it passive? What is it driven by?
Ligand-gated ion channels (LGICs) are integral membrane proteins that contain a pore that allows the regulated flow of selected ions across the plasma membrane. Ion flux is passive and driven by the electrochemical gradient for the permeant ions.
What are nicotinic acetylcholine receptors permeable to? Are they specific or non-specific, and what do they modulate?
- Permeable to Na+, K+ and Ca2+
- Non-specific cation (a positively charged ion) channels
- Modulate fast synaptic excitation.
What are glial cells?
A type of cell that provides physical and chemical support to neurons and maintain their environment.
What are agonists?
Chemicals or drugs that activate receptors and produce a response.
What are antagonists, and what do they do?
They are drugs that combine with receptors but do not activate them. They reduce the probability of the transmitter substance or agonists combining with the receptor and do reduces or blocks its action.
Define specificity
The ability of a drug to combine with one particular part of receptor.
Are drugs always specific?
Nah, no drug is truly specific but many have relatively selective action on one type of receptor.
Define affinity
The degree to which a substance tends to combine with another.
What does Corpora non agunt nisi fixata mean?
Entities do not act unless attached.
What does the Law of Mass Action state?
According to the law of mass action, a reaction’s velocity depends on the reactants’ concentrations.
Draw the Law of Mass Action and state the values
A+R (Equilibrium arrow) AR
Above arrow: K+1
Below arrow: K-1
A: Ligand
R: Receptor
k+1: association (forward) rate constant
k+2: disassociation (backward) rate constant
What can we assume in equilibrium regarding the Law of Mass Action ratio? What is the formula?
The rate of AR being formed equals the rate of AR dissociating
k+1[A][R] = k-1 [AR]
What do you form when you combine the association constant and disassociation constant?
The disassociation equilibrium constant for the binding reaction, KA
What are the two abbreviations of the disassociation constant?
Disassociation constant or the equilibrium constant
What equation models the relationship between ligand concentration and receptor occupancy? Draw it
The Hill-Langmuir
What is KD in binding experiments?
Relates to the concentration of antibody in a substance
What is KA equal to?
The concentration of ligand required to occupy 50% of the receptors
The lower KA, the greater the receptor’s affinity for the ligand. True or False?
Trueeeeee
What is receptor occupancy?
It measures the degree to which the test drug occupies its target receptor in the tissue or animal
What is receptor occupancy?
It measures the degree to which the test drug occupies its target receptor in the tissue or animal
Define efficacy
The tendency for an agonist to activate the receptor
Some agonists only needed to occupy a small % of receptors to give a maximal response. True or false?
True
Define Drug Potency
A measure of drug activity is expressed in the amount required to produce an effect of given intensity. Such as EC50
What two things does drug potency depend on?
Receptor (affinity, efficacy) and tissue (receptor numbers, drug accessibility) parameters.
What are partial agonists?
An agonist that in a given tissue, under specified conditions, cannot elicit as significant an effect (even when applied at high concentration with 100% receptor occupancy) as can another agonist acting through the same receptors in the same tissue
What is the most common and most important type of antagonist action?
Reversible Competitive Antagonism
The antagonist forms a long-lasting or irreversible combination with the receptor; what is the term used for this?
Irreversible Competitive Antagonism
What happens between antagonist and agonist in the reversible competitive antagonism?
They compete for the same binding site on the receptor.
In the presence of an antagonist, the agonist concentration-response curve is ‘shifted to the left’ with a change in maximal response or a change in slope. T or F?
FALSE. In the presence of an antagonist, the agonist concentration-response curve is ‘shifted to the RIGHT’ WITHOUT a change in maximal response or change in slope.
What is the ‘shift to the right’ best expressed by and what is it?
Concentration ratio! It is the factor by which the agonist concentration must be increased to restore a given response in the presence of an antagonist.
The antagonist action is insurmountable, i.e., the maximal response cannot be fully restored with increasing concentrations of agonist. True or False?
True
What is non-competitive antagonism?
Binds to an allosteric (non-agonist) site on the receptor to prevent receptor activation.
Can agonist and antagonist molecules be bound to the receptor simultaneously?
Yes
When can the receptor become active?
Only when the agonist site alone is occupied, not both the antagonist and agonist or antagonist alone.
Is antagonist action reversible or irreversible?
Both