Intro to Pharmacology Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is pharmacology?
The study of changes brought about in living organisms by chemically acting substances, whether for therapeutic purposes or not.
This can include things such as food, as long as they provide or give rise to chemicals that act upon receptors in our body.
What is the first known listing of drugs with medicinal purposes?
Chinese emperor Shennung in 2,700 BC
Why did early pharmacology often kill people? How does modern pharmacology avoid this?
There were no dosage controls, and the drugs were often ineffective and dangerous. A key to modern pharmacology is finding the ‘active compound’ and determining how it can be used.
Plan extracts were often used, and were dangerous as the active ingredient and dosages were often unclear. Companies now standardise this.
What type of drugs constitute the bulk of new drug discoveries?
- Analogues to existing drugs.
- New applications for existing drugs
- Designing drugs specifically for a disease phenotype (when mechanisms are known)
- Synthesis and screening of new chemical entities
Serendipity is no longer used to discover drugs.
What two factors influence the scheduling of a drug?
- Therapeutic benefit
- Potential harm
What are the 5 steps for establishing safety and efficacy of drugs?
- Preclinical studies (animal testing)
- Phase I clinical studies (healthy humans)
- Phase II clinical studies (treating people)
- Phase III clinical studies (larger group)
- Phase IV post-marketing and surveillance (asses risk benefit)
What are three types of toxicities that must be assessed for drug approval?
- Teratogenicity (developmental)
- Mutagenicity
- Reproductive toxicity
What are four criteria for drug quality?
- Purity
- Stability and sterility (will they become toxic over time?)
- Limits of toxic impurities
- Defined approved amount of drug, released at a specified rate.
What are orphan drugs?
Drugs for conditions affecting less than 200,000 Americans
There is an incentive for developing these drugs
What are three types of drug nomenclature?
- Brand name
- Generic name (used in academics)
- Chemical name
What is pharmacokinetics?
Investigates the effects of the biological system on drugs (absorption, distribution, elimination…)
What is pharmacodynamics?
describes the fundamental action of a drug on physiological, biochemical or molecular level
What are pharmacogenetics?
Examines the effects of genetic factors to variations in the drug response (“Asian Flush”, Codeine “resistance”)
Define toxicology
Studies the undesirable effects of chemicals on living systems (includes poisons, antidotes and unwanted side effects of drugs)
Define pharmacy
Is the art of preparing, compounding and dispensing chemicals for medicinal use
What is a prophylactic?
A drug or procedure aimed to PREVENT disease
What is a palliative?
A drug or procedure aimed to relieve symptoms
What is a therapeutic?
A drug or procedure aimed to CURE disease
