Week 1 Flashcards
What is Pharmacology?
Pharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on the function of living systems
What is a drug”?
- a chemical substance of known structure, other than a nutrient or an essential ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism produces a biological event
- any substance or product that is used to modify or explore physiological streams or pathological states for the benefit of the recipient
- Drugs may be synthetic chemicals, chemicals obtained from plants or animals, or products of genetic engineering
What is a simple/better definition of a drug?
A drug is any chemical that produces a biological effect
What is the key element to a substance being counted as a drug?
It has to be administered (exogenous) rather than released by physiological mechanisms
What does endogenous mean?
Inside the body
What does exogenous mean?
Outside the body
What is a medicine?
- a chemical preparation, which usually but not necessarily contains one or more drugs, administered with the intention of producing a therapeutic effect
- drugs mixed in a formulation with other ingredients to improve the stability, taste or physical form, in order to allow appropriate administration of the active drug
For a drug to be useful it should have the following attributes:
- Potency
Biological selectivity
Chemical specificity
maority of drugs used in western society are made from what?
Natural sources
- maority of drugs are organic molecules and are generally acids or bases
What could have a huge effect of the future of drug discovery
Ecological destruction
Are all drugs chemicals?
Yes, irrespective of whether they came from plants, animals, microorganisms, minerals or are synthesised
Most drugs have 3 names… which are?
- Chemical name
Generic (non-proprietary) name - Trade (proprietary) name
What does the chemical name describe?
The chemical structure of the compound including location and type of chemical side chains
