NAME: UGBOR JOHNBOSCO CHUKWUEBUKA

REG. NUMBER: LCU/UG/20/17158

DEPT: RADIOGRAPHY

COURSE: PHA 410 (PHARMACPODYNAMICS AND CHEMOTHERAPY)

LEVEL: 400L

DATE: 25/11/2022

QUESTION
DISCUSS LD 50 AND ED 50
ANSWERS:
LD 50
The term LD50 refers to an estimate of the amount of poison that, under control
conditions, will be a lethal dose to 50% of a large number of test animals of a particular
species. The value is expressed in milligrams of the substance being tested per kilogram
of animal body weight (mg/kg). Factors affecting LD50.
LD50 measures the amount of a substance that is sufficient to kill 50% of a specific
species when given all at once within a certain time period. This data is useful for
evaluating the acute toxicity of various substances on different species. A lower LD50
value indicates a higher toxicity level. A lower LD50 means a smaller dose is sufficient
to kill 50% of a test group of a specific species.
Factors affecting LD50
There are a number of factors to consider when using LD50 as a guide to an animal’s
susceptibility to poison.
 Values will differ between populations in relation to their geographic location. For
example many native animals in south-western Australia have a higher tolerance to 1080
than similar species in eastern Australia due to their historic exposure to naturally
occurring fluoroacetate in many indigenous plants.
 Values may vary with age, sex and nutritional status
 LD50 does not measure corrosiveness, caustic burning, irritability, cancer-causing
properties or other injurious reactions.
 LD50 does not tell you how long an animal takes to die. If an animal takes a long time
to die from poisoning (eg. 1080 has a long latent period), it may ingest more poison than
is needed. Knowing this may affect the way you lay a poison trail as you do not want to
lay more poison than is necessary. If carcasses contain excess poison they may be a
source of non-target poisoning as well as increasing the cost.
 Values are expressed as a single dose and do not give information on cumulative effects
or repeated sub-lethal doses.
The LD50 may be determined for any route of administration including the dermal or
oral means of contact or ingestion of chemicals. If a species has a high LD50 it means it
has a high tolerance to the poison. A low LD50 means the species is highly susceptible to
the poison.
The LD50 for a particular poison can vary greatly between different species of animals.
Since LD50 is quoted in mg/kg of body weight, the amount of poison to kill an animal is
a direct function of the species’ body weight.
ED 50
 ED50 stands for the effective dose 50, and in this case efficacy is seen as the maximum
effect a drug can cause at any given dose. The smaller the ED50, the more potent the
drug.
The median effective dose (ED50) is a pharmacological term for the dose or concentration
of a medication that produces a therapeutic effect in 50% of subjects taking it.
The ED50 is the dose required to achieve 50% of the desired response in 50% of the
population. It is thus calculated from a dose–response curve by dropping a line on the
dose axis where 50% of the desired response is seen. As with LD50 and TD50, ED50 is
usually reported in regulatory submissions of a new drug.
The "median effective dose" is the dose that produces a quantal effect (all or nothing) in
50% of the population that takes it (median referring to the 50% population base). [4] It is
also sometimes abbreviated as the ED 50, meaning "effective dose for 50% of the
population". The ED50 is commonly used as a measure of the reasonable expectancy of a
drug effect, but does not necessarily represent the dose that a clinician might use. This
depends on the need for the effect, and also the toxicity. The toxicity and even the
lethality of a drug can be quantified by the TD 50 and LD50 respectively. Ideally, the
effective dose would be substantially less than either the toxic or lethal dose for a drug to
be therapeutically relevant.

HOW ED 50 IS DETERMINED
The ED50 is the dose required to achieve 50% of the desired response in 50% of the
population. It is thus calculated from a dose–response curve by dropping a line on the
dose axis where 50% of the desired response is seen.

WHY IS ED 50 USED?
A useful measure is the median effective dose, ED 50, which is defined as the dose
producing a response that is 50 percent of the maximum obtainable. ED 50 values provide
a useful way of comparing the potencies of drugs that produce physiologically similar
effects at different concentrations.