Pharmacology

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module. PHAR 6, hypertension: treatments that are currently prescribed for hypertension, focusing on their pharmacodynamics to understand how these different drugs lower blood pressure and considering some of their side effects and important factors to consider when choosing treatment. - Explain the cardiovascular control of blood pressure and describe how it is measured - Classify the various stag...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module PHAR 7 on antimicrobials: we will consider drugs that are used in the treatment of microbial infection, exploiting key differences in biochemistry that permit treatments with varying degrees of selectivity for their target vs man. Importantly, this is an area where pharmacologists, toxicologists, and medicinal chemists face the challenges related to treatment efficacy i.e. the drugs don’t work...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, pharmacology module. Phar 2: introduction to pharmacology with pharmacokinetics. learning outcomes = - LO1 Administration: List the major routes by which drugs may be administered and their advantages and disadvantages. - LO2 Distribution: Identify the factors that affect the passage of drugs across membranes and thus determine drug distribution. - LO3 Metabolism: Identify the routes and biochemistry of Pha...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module Pharmacology 8 on cancer drug therapies: In this session, we will refresh our memories about the hallmarks of cancer, before thinking about how some of those hallmarks might help us design and use pharmaceutical agents in therapy. We will be focusing on small-molecular chemotherapeutic agents, paying particular attention to their mechanism of action. learning outcomes: LO1: Provide a conci...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, pharmacology module. Phar 9 on obesity: In this session, we will turn our attention to a different challenge: pharmaceuticals for treating obesity. We will start by defining what we mean by the term obese, before considering the fundamental causes, and pharmacologically-relevant mechanisms that contribute to obesity. Later, we will explore pharmaceuticals that are in use (or have previously been used) to treat o...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, pharmacology module. Phar 9 on obesity: In this session, we will turn our attention to a different challenge: pharmaceuticals for treating obesity. We will start by defining what we mean by the term obese, before considering the fundamental causes, and pharmacologically-relevant mechanisms that contribute to obesity. Later, we will explore pharmaceuticals that are in use (or have previously been used) to treat o...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, pharmacology module. Phar 9 on obesity: In this session, we will turn our attention to a different challenge: pharmaceuticals for treating obesity. We will start by defining what we mean by the term obese, before considering the fundamental causes, and pharmacologically-relevant mechanisms that contribute to obesity. Later, we will explore pharmaceuticals that are in use (or have previously been used) to treat o...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, pharmacology module. Phar 1 module on introduction to pharmacology with pharmacodynamics: learning outcomes: - LO1 Pharmacodynamics: Define what is meant by a ‘drug’ and a ‘drug target site’. - LO2 Target sites: List the four main categories of drug target sites. - LO3 Selectivity: Explain the concept of drug selectivity (cf. specificity) and how this relates to ‘structure activity relationsh...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module PHAR 5, on opioids: - Structure activity relationships: Predict how the chemical structure of opioids can determine lipid solubility and affinity/efficacy of these drugs. - Absorption: Review how route of administration may influence the bioavailability of drugs. - Metabolism: Explain how the metabolism of opioids can change the structure of opioid drugs and greatly influence their abi...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, pharmacology module. Phar 3 on psychoactive drugs, depressants (alcohol, cannabis): - Lipid solubility: Predict how the lipid solubility of alcohol and cannabis will influence drug distribution. - Dosing: Calculate the amount of alcohol administered within specific doses and predict the likely bioavailability associated with each dose. - Pharmacokinetics: Compare and contrast how alcohol and cannabis are abso...