Block A

• To know the relationship between pharmacology and related medical

sciences
• To understand the nature of toxicology
• To understand the term “receptor” in pharmacological terms
• To know how drugs are studied and their targets

What is Pharmacology –
and how does it relate to other Subjects?

Pharmacology: deals with the mechanisms

of action, uses and unwanted effects of drugs
on living tissues
A drug is a substance that modifies the
activity of living tissue

Physiology: the science of how living

tissues function
Drugs interfere with either normal or
abnormal physiology

Therapeutics: the study of the use of

pharmacological agents in disease states.

Pathology: the study of how the

body goes wrong in disease states.
 What is an agonist?
Drugs, or naturally occurring body substances, that directly cause a measurable response.
This response can be either an excitatory or an inhibitory response (depends on the
receptor being activated).

Affinity
Agonist
Binding of agonist
(or any drug)
to its receptor

Efficacy
Ability of agonist
(or any drug)
to activate the receptor
i.e. elicit a response

Agonist quantification

-9
EC50 1x10 M

Figure 1: Concentration-response curve

 F

-9 -8
1X10
1 gms
Cch 1.0E-9 M
M 1X10
Cch 1.0E-8 M
M 1X10-6M
Cch 1.0E-6 M Wash ()
0.3333 s Wash () Wash () Wash ()
Figure 2: Acetylcholine

Figure 3: Allows comparison of EC50 values

What is an antagonist?
Pharmacological antagonism: when drugs counteract each other by acting on the same
receptor type