Pharmacology Flashcards
Explain the process of drug development
- In vitro studies (tests done in test tube or petri dish)
- Animal testing (efficacy, selectivity)
- clinical testing;
phase 1: is it safe? testing on healthy volunteers
phase 2: does it work on patients?
phase 3: does it work? double blind. 1000-6000 patients - drug metabolism and safety assessment
- marketing
4 roles for pharmacological agents
- Reversible blockade of physiological responses - e.g oral contraceptives, muscle relaxants
- regulation of normal physiological responses: Neurotransmitters and disease, parkinsons disease (low dopamine), depression (low noradrenaline and 5-HT)
- Supplementation of normal
physiological processes - Elimination of something foreign (e.g antibacterials, antivirals)
Where do drugs act?
Receptors - located usually in membranes or cytoplasm
How do drugs act?
Can be reversible (non-covalent) or irreversible (covalent)
Selectivity or specificity?
An ideal drug will be selective for a particular response
Most drugs have more than one action (e.g morphine is for pain relief or constipation)
What does potency mean?
an expression of the activity of a drug in terms of the amount (concentration) of the drug required to produce a specific effect
What is efficacy/intrinsic activity?
the maximal possible effect that can be produced by a drug.
What is an agonist?
A drug that produces a response by binding and inducing a change to an active configuration which produces a response
What is an antagonist?
A drug that blocks a response by binding to the same sites as an agonist but doesn’t induce an active conformation (prevents access to the agonist)
E.g ATROPINE
What shape are dose response curves?
Sigmoidal
What is EC50?
The concentration that elicit 50% of the maximum response of a drug
