Pharmacology Of The Nervous System Flashcards
What is pharmacology?
A chemical sub stance that interacts with a specific target within a biological system to produce a physiological effect
What are the three main question to consider concerning drugs?
What is the ya regret for the drug?
Where is the effect produced?
What is the response produced after interaction with this target?
What are side effects?
An effect produced by the drug that is secondary to the intended effect (if a negative effect then an adverse effect)
Can be produced by drug action on:
Other targets in the same tissue or other tissues
The same target in other tissues
Dependant on the dose of drug delivered
The safest drug is one that has a large difference in the dose required to induce the desired effect and the dose required to induce side effects
What are drug targets?
Most are proteins
4 main classes:
Receptors
Enzymes
Transport proteins
Ion channels
Some drugs enhance activation (stimulate an effect) others prevent activation (block an effect from being produced)
What is drug selectivity?
To be an effective therapeutic agent a drug must show a high degree of selectivity for a particular drug target
By the lock and key method
Why is selectivity more important for drugs than for endogenous compounds like dopamine?
Endogenous compounds (eg. Neurotransmitters) are very specifically delivered to their drug target
Drugs are often taken orally, digested and distributed to every tissue in the body by the blood
Dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin have very similar structures so could potentially all act on the same targets
How does dose effect side effects?
At the lowest does possible you will get a therapeutic effect
At increasing doses other receptors (not the target) may be affected, causing some side effects