Introduction

Question 1

What is pharmacology?

Answer 1

• study of drugs- what they are,how they work and what they do
• study manner in which th function of living tissues and organs is modified by chemical substances

Question 2

What is pharmacodynamnics?

Answer 2

What a drug does to the body (biological effects and mechanisms of action)

Question 3

What is pharmacokinetics?

Answer 3

What the body does to a drug (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs and their metabolites

Question 4

What is a drug?

Answer 4

Any single synthetic, or natural, substance of known structure used in the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of disease

• MORE BROADLY- everyday substances (caffeine , nicotine and alcohol )
• and illicit substances ( cocaine)

Question 5

What is a medicine?

Answer 5

A chemical preparation containing one, or more, drugs used with the intention of causing a therapeutic effect. Medicines usually include agents additional to the active drug

Question 6

What does a drug need to be useful as a therapeutic agent?

Answer 6

A degree of selectivity

Question 7

What results in selectivity of drugs binding?

Answer 7

• the chemical structure of drug (binding site specificity)

- the target recognising only ligands of a precise structure (ligand specificity)

Question 8

Name some drug targets in the body.

Answer 8

• enzymes
• carrier molecules
• ion channels
• receptor
• RNA
• DNA

Question 9

What is an agonist?

Answer 9

a drug that binds to a receptor to produce a cellular response i.e adrenaline

Question 10

What is a antagonist ?

Answer 10

A drug that blocks the actions of an agonist by binding to the same receptor i.e B-blockers

Question 11

What is the affinity of an agonist?

Answer 11

The strength of association between ligand and receptor

Question 12

What is the efficacy of an angonist?

Answer 12

The ability to evoke a cellular response

Question 13

What does antagonists lack?

Answer 13

Efficacy

Question 14

What is the relationship between agonist and receptor occupancy?

Answer 14

Hyperbolic relationship- saturation when all receptors are occupied

Question 15

What is the relationship between agonist concentration and the response on a linear graph?

Answer 15

-hyperbolic relationship

Question 16

What is EC50?

Answer 16

The concentration of agonist that elicits a half maximal response

Question 17

What is the most effective plot when calculating EC50?

Answer 17

• semi-logarithmic plot is more effective plot than linear as EC50 is more easily identified

Question 18

What is the relationship between agonist concentration and the response on a semi-logarithmic graph?

Answer 18

sigmoidal

Question 19

What is a high potency?

Answer 19

The ability to evoke a maximal response at a low level of concentration. A low potency evokes the same response at a high concentration

Question 20

What sites does an agonist and an antagonist bind to?

Answer 20

• agonists binds to orthosteric

- antagonist binds to separate allosteric site

Question 21

Is an antagonist competitive or not?

Answer 21

not competitive

Question 22

Provide a description of the effect of a competitive, or non-competitive, antagonist upon the concentration response curve for an agonist acting at the same population of receptors

Answer 22

Competitive antagonists cause a parallel rightward shift of the agonist concentration response curve with no depression of the maximal response. Non-competitive antagonists depress the slope and maximum of the concentration response curve, but do not cause a rightward shift