PHARMACOLOGY M1.1

• Pharmacokinetics is the study of how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes drugs.
• Pharmacodynamics describes the action of drugs and includes the measurement of responses to drugs and how response relates to drug dose or concentration.
• Pharmacotherapeutics (pharmacotherapy) is the study of the use of drugs to treat diseases.
• Pharmacogenetics is the study of the relationship of genetic factors to variations in drug response.
• Pharmacoeconomics is the study of the cost effectiveness of drug treatments.
• Pharmacoepidemiology is the study of the effect of drugs on population.
• Toxicology is the study of drug’s adverse effects.
• Toxinology is the study of a poison, usually one produced by or occurring in a plant or microorganism.
• Posology is the study of doses.
• Pharmacy is the study of drug’s manufacture, preparation and dispensing of drugs.
• Pharmacognosy is the study of the identification and preparation of crude drugs from natural sources.
• Materia Medica is the science of drug preparation and the medical use of drugs.
• Clinical Pharmacy is the application of all principles in pharmacy to humankind.
• Pharmacology is the study of substances that interact with living systems through chemical processes, especially by binding to regulatory molecules and activating or inhibiting normal body processes.
• These substances may be chemicals administered to achieve a beneficial therapeutic effect on some process within the patient or for their toxic effects on regulatory processes in parasites infecting the patient.
• Medical pharmacology is the science of substances used to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease.
• Toxicology is the branch of pharmacology that deals with the undesirable effects of chemicals on living systems, from individual cells to humans to complex ecosystem.
• The Materia Medica, the science of medical use of drugs, was developed as the precursor to pharmacology.
• Francois Magendie and his student Claude Bernard, developed the methods of experimental physiology and pharmacology.
• New concepts about drug action and biologic substrate of that action, the drug receptor, were introduced.
• Introduction of Pharmacogenomics.
• The precursor to pharmacology was the "Materia Medica", the use of drugs in the treatment of disease, which is a development from the ancient practice of "Shamans" and spirits in attending to sick.
• During the time when understanding how drugs work at the organ and tissue levels was a major advancement in basic pharmacology, there was an outburst of unscientific claims by manufacturers and marketers of worthless “patent medicines.”
• The molecular mechanisms of action of many drugs have been identified, and numerous receptors have been isolated, structurally characterized, and cloned.
• The latest development in pharmacology is pharmacogenomics, which is the relation of the individual’s genetic makeup to his or her response to specific drugs.
• Pharmacogenomics leads to several advances in therapeutics such as:
• Investigation of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) as therapeutic agents
• Pharmacodynamics describes the action of drugs
• Drugs must be sufficiently unique in shape, charge and other properties to “fit” to a specific receptor
• Its (S)(-) isomer is a potent beta blocker while the (R)(+) isomer is a hundred fold weaker at the beta receptor
• The major types of drug-receptor chemical forces or bonds are;
• Short nucleotide chains called antisense oligonucleotides (ANOs), were synthesized to be complementary to natural RNA or DNA
• Covalent - very strong; not reversible
• Hydrophobic - usually quite weak; it is the interaction of highly lipid-soluble drugs with the lipids of the cell membrane
• The (+) enantiomer of ketamine is more potent and is less toxic than the (-) enantiomer
• A drug may interact with the Receptor – “the target molecule” for drug
• Drug size range from very small to very large
• The dose of the drug makes the poison (Paracelsus)
• A drug may be synthesized within the body (HORMONES) or it may be chemicals not synthesized in the body (Xenobiotics - “stranger”)
• Certain drugs exhibit chirality (stereoisomerism) such as carvedilol