Pharmacology of Cell Excitation
Chapter 6 Pharmacology of cell excitation 6.1 Overview Nerve cells, muscle cells and several other cell types are excitable, that is, they are activated by variations of their membrane potentials….
Pharmacokinetics
Chapter 3 Pharmacokinetics 3.1 The scope of pharmacokinetics Pharmacokinetics deals with the following questions: Will the drug reach its intended site of action? If not, can we improve the drug’s…
Chemotherapy of Infectious Diseases
Chapter 11 Chemotherapy of infectious diseases 11.1 Introduction In the treatment of infections, the goal is to kill the microbes, or at least to disrupt their ability to propagate, so…
Cancer Chemotherapy
Chapter 12 Cancer chemotherapy 12.1 Overview The purpose of cancer chemotherapy is analogous to that of antimicrobial chemotherapy, namely, to selectively kill the pathogenic cells. Of the two, cancer chemotherapy…
Drug Metabolism
Chapter 4 Drug metabolism 4.1 Overview In the last chapter, we have considered renal elimination of drugs. While some drugs are eliminated via the kidneys unchanged, most of them undergo…
Pharmacodynamics
Chapter 2 Pharmacodynamics 2.1 General principles of drug action Drugs act on many different targets and in diverse ways. Nevertheless, there are some general principles of drug action that are…
Intermediate Metabolism, Diabetes, and Atherosclerosis
Chapter 10 Intermediate metabolism, diabetes, and atherosclerosis 10.1 Overview Genetic enzyme defects rare; comparatively little effort spent on targeted drug development; only a few defects can be treated with drugs…
Eicosanoids and Related Drugs
Chapter 9 Eicosanoids and related drugs 9.1 Overview “Local hormones”—sphere of action often limited to same anatomical site or tissue Involved in control of inflammation, fever, blood coagulation, pain perception,…
G Protein-Coupled Receptors
Chapter 5 G protein-coupled receptors 5.1 Overview As stated earlier (slide 1.2.3), G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the single most important class of drug targets in the human body. It…
Drug Delivery
Chapter 14 Drug delivery 14.1 Introduction As we have seen in chapter 3, some drugs cannot get to their targets easily or even at all. In some cases, the best…
