Important terms and exam questions to study for Medical Pharmacology,
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (AB_1199)
These terms are all from the booklet which is needed for the course. I also have some
practice exam questions in here, which are very similar to the actual exam.
What is pharmacokinetics? --->. What the body does to the drug.
What is pharmacodynamics? --->. What the drug does to the body.
What is the contrario rule? --->. The illness needs to be counteracted or removed.
What does iatrogenic mean? --->. Relating to illness caused by medical examination or
treatment.
Placebo effects occur on average in ___% of patients and can be up to ___%. --->. 30; 70
For every medicine, its efficacy should in part be attributed to a ______. --->. placebo
effect
What does teratogenic mean? --->. Causes birth defects; embryo damaging.
What is done in phase 1 clinical trials? --->. Drug is tested on healthy human volunteers.
What is done in phase 2 clinical trials? --->. The drug is tested on the target human
population (patients).
What is done in phase 3 clinical trials? --->. Testing the drug in thousands of patients and
comparing it to existing treatments. Split the patients randomly into two groups, one group
gets new treatment, and the other gets existing treatment (= clinical trial).
What are the three principal ethical standards for the development of new drugs? --->. 1.
The individual patient must not be placed at risk of getting an inferior treatment.
2. Informed consent.
3. Risk to the patient must not be (significantly) greater than those of standard treatment.
Which processes belong to pharmacokinetics? --->. absorption, distribution, metabolism,
excretion.
, Why is the action of anasthethics not seen as an effect mediated by receptors? --->.
Because due to physico-chemical properties the anasthethic enters the nerve cell membrane
and modifies its properties so that stimulus conduction is impeded.
What is an agonist? --->. It is a drug that is capable of binding to, and activating, a receptor
(i.e. alters the conformation of the receptor resulting in a biological response).
What is an antagonist? --->. Drug which binds to a receptor without causing a cahnge in
the conformation (i.e. no activation) of the receptor.
How can a drug that only binds to one specific receptor still cause many different effects?
--->. Because the relevant receptors are often present in different tissues and organs.
What does occupancy postulate mean? --->. The fraction or the percentage of the total
available number of receptors that is occupied by the drug molecules.
If two agonists bind the same receptors and only their affinity for these receptors is
different, what will you see in the concentration-effect (CE) curves? --->. The CE-curves run
parallel.
Higher Kd means: --->. lower affinity.
Lower Kd means: --->. higher affinity.
How do you calculate the pD2 value? --->. pD2 = -log[A]50%
= -log Kd
What does a high pD2 value mean? --->. The higher the pD2 value, the greater the affinity
for its receptor will be.
Despite having the same degree of receptor occupancy, the biological efficacy of an
agonist-receptor complex (AR complex) can differ, depending on so-called ______ of the
agonist. --->. intrinsic activity (alpha)
For the agonist that causes the highest maximum effect, per definition the following applies:
alpha (a) = ___. --->. 1
Agonists with alpha = 1, are called: --->. full agonists (it maximally activates its receptor).
Full agonist have a intrinsic activity (alpha) of: --->. 1.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (AB_1199)
These terms are all from the booklet which is needed for the course. I also have some
practice exam questions in here, which are very similar to the actual exam.
What is pharmacokinetics? --->. What the body does to the drug.
What is pharmacodynamics? --->. What the drug does to the body.
What is the contrario rule? --->. The illness needs to be counteracted or removed.
What does iatrogenic mean? --->. Relating to illness caused by medical examination or
treatment.
Placebo effects occur on average in ___% of patients and can be up to ___%. --->. 30; 70
For every medicine, its efficacy should in part be attributed to a ______. --->. placebo
effect
What does teratogenic mean? --->. Causes birth defects; embryo damaging.
What is done in phase 1 clinical trials? --->. Drug is tested on healthy human volunteers.
What is done in phase 2 clinical trials? --->. The drug is tested on the target human
population (patients).
What is done in phase 3 clinical trials? --->. Testing the drug in thousands of patients and
comparing it to existing treatments. Split the patients randomly into two groups, one group
gets new treatment, and the other gets existing treatment (= clinical trial).
What are the three principal ethical standards for the development of new drugs? --->. 1.
The individual patient must not be placed at risk of getting an inferior treatment.
2. Informed consent.
3. Risk to the patient must not be (significantly) greater than those of standard treatment.
Which processes belong to pharmacokinetics? --->. absorption, distribution, metabolism,
excretion.
, Why is the action of anasthethics not seen as an effect mediated by receptors? --->.
Because due to physico-chemical properties the anasthethic enters the nerve cell membrane
and modifies its properties so that stimulus conduction is impeded.
What is an agonist? --->. It is a drug that is capable of binding to, and activating, a receptor
(i.e. alters the conformation of the receptor resulting in a biological response).
What is an antagonist? --->. Drug which binds to a receptor without causing a cahnge in
the conformation (i.e. no activation) of the receptor.
How can a drug that only binds to one specific receptor still cause many different effects?
--->. Because the relevant receptors are often present in different tissues and organs.
What does occupancy postulate mean? --->. The fraction or the percentage of the total
available number of receptors that is occupied by the drug molecules.
If two agonists bind the same receptors and only their affinity for these receptors is
different, what will you see in the concentration-effect (CE) curves? --->. The CE-curves run
parallel.
Higher Kd means: --->. lower affinity.
Lower Kd means: --->. higher affinity.
How do you calculate the pD2 value? --->. pD2 = -log[A]50%
= -log Kd
What does a high pD2 value mean? --->. The higher the pD2 value, the greater the affinity
for its receptor will be.
Despite having the same degree of receptor occupancy, the biological efficacy of an
agonist-receptor complex (AR complex) can differ, depending on so-called ______ of the
agonist. --->. intrinsic activity (alpha)
For the agonist that causes the highest maximum effect, per definition the following applies:
alpha (a) = ___. --->. 1
Agonists with alpha = 1, are called: --->. full agonists (it maximally activates its receptor).
Full agonist have a intrinsic activity (alpha) of: --->. 1.
