Pharmacology Flashcards
What is the definition of pharmaceutics?
Creation of the physical product
What is the definition of pharmacokinetics?
Getting the drug into the body and to the site of action
The affect of the body on the drug
What is the definition of pharmacodynamics?
Getting the drug to do something
The effects of the drug on the body
What is therapeutics?
The study of pharmacology in the context of treating and benefits to the patient
What is bioavailability?
The proportion of the drug which reaches the systemic circulation
What 4 factors is bioavailability affected by?
1) Extent of metabolism before reaching the systemic circulation
2) Lack or presence of food in the GI tract
3) Dissolution and absorption of a drug
4) Stability of drug in the GI tract
What is the half life of a drug?
The time required to reduce the plasma concentration of a drug to half of its original value
As a rule of thumb, how many half lives are needed for a drug to get out of the circulation?
5
What is the therapeutic index of a drug, in the ideal drug what would be the value of this index?
Ratio of ‘dose that causes toxicity: dose that produces a desired effect’
Want the ideal drug to have a high therapeutic index
Can you name any drugs with a low therapeutic index?
1) Digoxin
2) Gentamicin
3) Carbamazepine
4) Lithium
5) Phenytoin
6) Theophylline
What do phenytoin and gentamicin require plasma concentrations measurements?
Have low therapeutic indices
Want to make sure suppress seizures with phenytoin
Want to prevent toxicity with Gentamicin
What is the volume of distribution (Vd) of a drug and what is it used for?
Calculated as a theoretical value and calculated in relation to body compartments
Needed to determine the loading dose of a drug needed, bigger Vd = bigger loading dose
What is clearance of a drug?
The amount of plasma from which the drug is completely removed in any given time
eg. if the concentration is 1g/L and the clearance is 1L per hours then the rate of elimination is 1g/hour
What 2 ways can you increase the plasma concentration of a drug?
1) Increase the dose
2) Increase the dose frequency
What is an example of a drug in which you have to be careful how you increase the plasma concentration?
Dihydrocodeine
You should increase the frequency rather than the dose in order to avoid toxicity
What is meant by a parenteral route of administration?
Injection, IV, SC, or IM
What is the difference in routes of administration of Penicillin G and V and why?
Penicillin G is unstable in acid so is given IV
Penicillin V is stable in acid so can be given orally
What 3 factors may alter absorption of a drug from the GI tract?
1) Gastric emptying
2) GI motility
3) GI disorders (migraine and surgery slow gut movement - broken down in stomach acid before even reaches GI tract)
What is the purpose of enteric coating on drugs?
To protect from stomach acids
Stop the drug being ionised by the stomach acid as if it becomes ionised it cannot be absorbed
What is the issue with suppository (rectal) drug administration?
Good absorption
Poor retention
What are the 2 methods by which drugs can be excreted?
Renal (filtered out by the kidneys once the drug has reached the systemic circulation and excreted in the urine) Hepatic clearance (excreted in the bile by the liver, excreted in faeces)
What are the 2 possible methods of drug movement in the body?
1) BULK FLOW TRANSFER : in the blood
2) DIFFUSION TRANSFER : molecule by molecule
What is the influence of pH on drug transfer?
Many drugs weak acid or bases
Degree of ionisation depends on their environment pH
Acid in the stomach will ionise/dissociate a drug
What happens to the level of ionisation of acidic and basic drugs with increasing pH?
1) Acidic drugs become increasingly ionised/dissociate with increasing pH
2) Basic drugs become increasingly unionised with increasing pH
By what 2 methods do drugs pass through the lipid membrane?
1) Passive diffusion
2) Facilitated diffusion
What kind of drugs can pass the membrane by simple diffusion and which require a carrier?
Lipophillic can cross membrane
Hydrophillic (polar/ionised) require a carrier
What 4 barriers require a carrier to get drugs across?
1) BBB
2) renal tubule
3) GI tract
4) Biliary tract
The body is designed to protect against foreign chemicals entering the blood, in what 3 ways can we alter drugs to get them into the system?
1) Change the route of administration
2) Change the formulation eg. injection solutions
3) Alter the physiochemical properties of a drug
What factors affect absorption?
1) Compliance
2) Food
3) Formulation (eg. enteric coated/slow release)
4) Route of administration
5) Lack of specific carrier
6) Malabsorption syndromes
7) First pass effect
8) Site of drug absorption
9) Drug interactions
Does the presence of food enhance of impair absorption of ketaconazole?
Enhance
Relies on an acid medium for absorption
Does the presence of food enhance or impair the absorption of tetracyline?
Impair
Calcium, iron, milk all reduce its absorption
What is the relationship between GI motility and Metoclopramide?
Increases GI motility
What is plasma protein binding and how does it affect drug distribution?
Competition for protein binding sites (mainly albumin)
Only free drug can act on receptors
Take another drug and knock the first of the binding site, could lead to toxicity
What factors affect drug distribution?
1) Plasma protein binding
2) Specific receptor sites in tissues
3) Regional blood flow
4) Lipid solubility
5) Disease
How can liver and renal disease affect distribution?
Liver disease - albumin made mostly in the liver
Renal disease - high blood urea levels
Why are water soluble drugs generally injected?
Not lipid soluble, cant cross membranes, confined to bodily fluids unless injected eg. gentamicin
Why can reductions in protein binding have different effects on different drugs?
If highly protein bound, a reduction of 5% binding will result in a significant increase in unbound drug
If low protein binding, a reduction of 5% binding will only increase the concentration of unbound drug by a negligible amount
Changes in plasma protein binding is significant for drugs which are >90% protein bound
What factors can increase the fraction of unbound drug?
1) Renal impairment: increase in urea levels (competes for binding sites)
2) Liver disease: low albumin levels
3) Late pregnancy: Decreased albumin production so fraction unbound increased but diluted by increase in blood volume and it is that that matters
4) Displacement from binding site by other drugs eg. Aspirin, sodium valproate, sulphonamides
5) Saturability of plasma protein binding within therapeutic range eg. phenyotin - dont get a linear increase in fraction unbound drug throughout whole therapeutic range
What 3 things could occur to a drug when it is metabolised in the liver?
1) Activation of an inactive drug
2) Production of an active drug from an active drug
3) Inactivation of an active drug
What is the first pass effect?
Extent of metabolism when a drug passes through the liver for the first time before it reaches the systemic circulation
May mean that a much higher oral dose (compared to IV dose) is needed to produce the same effect
How can acylation status, a genetic factor, alter the metabolism of drugs and what syndrome can slow acylation status result in?
Acylation is a process by which some drugs are metabolised
Slow acylation status will mean certain drugs build up
Slow acylation can result in Steven Johnsons syndrome - skin peels off and lose all fluid
If a drug has a high excretion ratio what does this indicate?
The fraction of a drug removed from the blood flowing through the kidney or other organ
High extraction ratio (close to 1) indicates lots of drug removed during a single pass
What is the determining factor in the hepatic clearance of a drug with a high extraction ration?
Hepatic blood flow
In drugs with a low extraction ratio which processes are rate limiting?
Poor diffusion through hepatocyte membrane
Hepatic clearance is independent of blood flow
Name some enzyme inducing drugs?
SMOKING CHRONIC ALCOHOL INTAKE Phenytoin Carbamazepine Phenobabrbitone Rifampicin
Name some enzyme inhibiting drugs?
ACUTE ALCOHOL INTAKE
erythromicin
ciproflaxin
oral contraceptives
What is the digoxin-erythromycin drug interaction?
In 10% of the population a substantial amount of digoxin is inactivated by gut bacteria
Erythromycin kills alot of gut bacteria
More active digoxin is absorbed and there is a risk of toxicity
What is the ethinylestradiol (oral contraceptives) - Abx drug interaction?
Ethinylestradiol undergoes hepatic recirculation
Its excreted in the bile, and hydrolysed by gut bacteria releasing oestrogen which is then reabsorbed
Abx prevent this and may result in contraceptive failure
What is entero hepatic recirculation?
Excreted in the bile
(possibly modified by gut bacteria)
Reabsorbed from small intestine and travels back to liver
Other than in bile and urine how else could drugs be excreted?
Sweat Breast milk Tears Genital secretion Saliva
What is glomerular function?
Kidney filtration function
What is the main site of drug excretion?
Kidneys
What is a normal GFR and rate of urine production?
GFR = 120ml/min
Urine production = 1-2ml/min
What has creatinine got to do with renal function?
Creatinine is a protein produced from the breakdown of muscle
It is neither actively secreted or passively reabsorbed from the kidneys
So estimation of creatinine clearance gives us a good estimate of drug clearance at the glomerulus
What is the cockgroft gault equation and what does it measure?
Estimation of creatinine clearance in ml/min
= ((140-age) x weight x constant) / (Serum creatinine)