Pharmacology of nervous system

Question 1

What is pharmacology?

Answer 1

• the study of how chemical agents (drugs) can influence the function of living systems.
  -A better definition:
  A chemical substance that interacts with a specific target within a
  biological system to produce a physiologic effect

Question 2

What are the three questions always to be asked in pharmacology?

Answer 2

1. Where is the effect produced?
2. What is the target for the drug?
3. What is the response produced after interaction with this target?

Question 3

Where would you feel analigesic effects?

Answer 3

Peri-aqueductal grey region

Question 4

Where would you feel euphoria?

Answer 4

Ventral tegmental area

Question 5

Where would cough suppression beimpacted ?

Answer 5

Solitary nucleus

Question 6

What are the 4 main classes of majority of drug targets are proteins?

Answer 6

1. Receptors
2. Enzymes
3. Transport proteins
4. Ion channels

Question 7

What is drug action like?

Answer 7

Drugs can act on targets to –
Enhance activation (stimulate an effect)
 Or
Prevent activation (block an effect from 
being produced).

Question 8

What are examples of the four most common drugs locally and globally and their target?

Answer 8

Atorvastatin: target is enzyme
Amlodipine: target is ion channel
Salbutamol: target is receptor
Citalopram: target is transport protein

Question 9

What is drug selectivity?

Answer 9

-Another concept relating to drug targets =
drug selectivity
-To be an effective therapeutic agent, a drug must show a high degree of selectivity for a particular drug target

Question 10

What are side effects?

Answer 10

• As the name implies, a side effect is an effect produced by the drug that is secondary to the intended effect.
• If that side effect has negative health consequences, then it is also termed an adverse effect
• The two terms are often used interchangeably, since most side effects have some sort of negative health consequence from minor (e.g. runny nose) to major (e.g. heart attack)
• These can be due to off-target effects
  (e. g. Pramipexole selectivity)

Question 11

What can side effects be produced by?

Answer 11

Side effects can be produced by drug action:

a) on other targets in the same tissue or other tissues
b) on the same target in other tissues
c) dependent on the dose of drug administered

Question 12

What are the safest drugs?

Answer 12

The ‘safest’ drugs are those where there is a large difference between the dose required to induce the desired effect and the dose required to induce side effects/adverse effects