Questions tagged [pharmacology]
Pharmacology is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function.
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How to evaluate long-term safety of biological interventions? [migrated]
I'm wondering how to go about evaluating the long term effects of a biological intervention, like a new therapeutic. There is emergent evidence that common medications like NSAIDs or anticholinergics ...
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1answer
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Are drugs made bitter artificially to prevent being mistaken for candy?
All drugs I remember tasting (with the notable exception of Aspirin) have bitter taste. Is the taste due to the active substance, or is a bittering agent added to them, perhaps to prevent overdose?
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Scatchard Plots and Total Receptor Concentration
Im having trouble understanding Scatchard plots.
Y Axis = Bound/Free Ligand
X Axis = Bound Ligand
The graph has a negative slope.
Why when there is almost no Bound (Y axis = 0) do we get a high ...
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19 views
How exactly does chemotherapy cause anemia?
I’ve been trying to figure this out for the past few hours but I still can’t find something as in depth as I’m looking for. So far all I’ve found is that chemo drugs kill bone marrow cells and some ...
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37 views
What degree of influence do SNPs have on activity of ligands at receptors?
I know that generally, evolution tends to evolve towards having some wiggle room in respect to effect of polymorphisms on binding of endogenous ligands, but with synthetic ligands, especially modern ...
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1answer
35 views
Does GABA enhance or inhibit negative effects of glutamate? [closed]
A study on NCBI studied the correlation between a depressive mood and chronic pain. I researched this because today I noticed unusual emotional volatility as a result of 2 days of acute back pain ...
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1answer
52 views
Why do beta-1 and beta-2 adrenergic receptors result in two completely different effects (though both use Gs pathway)?
$\beta_2$ adrenergic Receptors are $G_s$-coupled 7-TM proteins. Considering that $G_s$ , by activation increases $[\text{cAMP}]_\text{cytosol}$ which inhibits MLCK of smooth muscles (and causes ...
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20 views
Can severe vasoconstriction increase systolic blood pressure?
I know that, vasoconstriction results in increased total peripheral resistance which is responsible for the rise in diastolic blood pressure. Also, cardiac output is responsible for the systolic blood ...
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1answer
36 views
How does noradrenaline result in rise of systolic blood pressure even when the cardiac output is decreasing?
Systolic blood pressure[SBP] depends on the cardiac output. When Nor adrenaline is given there is vasoconstriction due to alpha-1 action on blood vessel, vasoconstriction results in increased total ...
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42 views
Is there an antidote for caffeine, e.g. as a supplicant for caffeine-intolerant persons?
First, let me state I'm not talking about a medical emergency. No one is in a serious condition.
My girlfriend is, we think, caffeine-intolerant. She loves the smell of coffee and the habit of coffee ...
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1answer
38 views
Why is prothrombin time used to monitor warfarin and not activated partial thromboplastin time?
Warfarin is said to change prothrombin time (PT) but not activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) (for practical purposes at least anyways, not really sure). But looking at the mechanism of action ...
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1answer
45 views
Area under the curve in a drug concentration curve
I am not from a background on pharamacokinetics and trying to learn some concepts.
I noticed that the definition for AUC involve the first 24 hours. For example in here AUC is defined as "the area ...
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1answer
73 views
Same target receptor different mechanism of action?
If different drugs have the same receptor as a target, does that imply that they have the same mechanism of action?
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1answer
119 views
Why is ACE2 not used as drug against covid? [closed]
Can ACE2 be produced and used as drug against covid? I read it is the receptor molecule. If it is in the organism the virus should bind to it and could not attack cells anymore? Is that right?
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1answer
54 views
Why do the calicheamicins bind to DNA at the minor, rather than the major, groove?
I am trying to understand why some drugs bind only to the minor groove and not to the major groove. More specifically, I am interested in calicheamicins.
They target DNA and cause strand scission. ...
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how does acetic acid induce pain?
how does acetic acid induce pain? I am finding the whole mechanism of it but cannot find any papers or writings. please help.
If you have links that would be nice too.
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Is this trial that reversed aging in humans worth taking seriously?
In September 2019 Fahy et al. published results from the TRIIM (Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation) trial. Their stated goals were to investigate whether they could restore ...
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24 views
Do biologists use the word “solubilize” to mean “dissolve”?
I work with biologists who often use the word "solubilize" to mean "dissolve".
Is this correct usage? I keep correcting them (I'm not a biologist, but I help with writing), and we argue about it. Not ...
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1answer
30 views
Difference between rate of elimination and clearance? [closed]
I honesty don't get the difference. I need a simple explanation so that I can grasp it.
Rate of elimination is
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1answer
25 views
Why does plasma protein saturation of a drug increase its volume of distribution and clearance rate?
I need help understanding this statement from Goodman and Gilman's "The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics:"
For a drug that is metabolized
by the liver with a low intrinsic clearance-...
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24 views
Does the zeta potential of a nanoparticle generally take into account ligand charge?
For example, if I had a quantum dot nanoparticle with conjugated linker peptides capped with polyarginine tracts.
Would the localization of negative charge from arginine change the zeta potential ...
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24 views
Is ampicillin a good choice of drug to treat a urinary tract infection caused by E.coli
Is ampicillin a good choice of drug to treat a urinary tract infection (cystitis) caused by E.coli? How does the environment of the urinary tract effect its ability to treat the bacteria.
When ...
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1answer
503 views
Why don't anti-viral drugs like “Acyclovir” work against coronaviruses?
I've always used Acyclovir to treat cold sores, why doesn't it work on other viruses?
How do coronaviruses differ from herpesviruses?
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What disposition means in the context of registering clinical studies?
I was diving into the AACT database, and in the studies table I had noticed some columns containing the term disposition such as:
...
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1answer
137 views
Why is Ibuprofen contraindicated in asthma patients?
So yesterday a patient showed up at the clinic with a massive swelling in his left face region. Upon examination it was found to be due to infected first premolar. Dentist recommended him to get the ...
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1answer
42 views
Does the composition of a meal play a big, or small, role in food's thermogenic effect on the body?
Reading in: "Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk / Calories: Total Macronutrient Intake, Energy Expenditure, and Net Energy Stores" [NCBI Resources]:
"The thermogenic ...
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Combining MAOIs with Stimulants [closed]
Is it dangerous to combine MAOIs with stimulants? According to wikpedia, Parnate, for example, "leads to an increase in the availability of monoamines, such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, ...
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2answers
2k views
What is “irrational” drug/molecule design?
Both the papers "Directed evolution: the 'rational' basis for 'irrational' design" by Tobin et al. and "Rational and 'Irrational' Design of Proteins and Their Use in Biotechnology" ...
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1answer
94 views
Are omeprazole and other members estrogenic and/or antiandrenergic?
As of 2020, omeprazole is a widely used OTC medicine for various types of acute heartburn and some other gastrointestinal disorders.
Almost every time I read about it I read that one of the possible ...
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1answer
23 views
How exactly can a drug affecting squalene epoxidase affect the methylation cycle, necessitating the use of 5-MTHF?
I found a case report in which the authors say that Terbinafine might have possibly affected the methylation cycle in a patient, necessitating the prescription of 5-methylfolate to correct the ...
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0answers
26 views
A question about dicumarol
I know that dicumarol was discovered in moldy sweet clover as it caused hemorrhage in cattles, but if someone had thromboembolic disorders causing uncontrolled thrombosis,would it be fine to eat moldy ...
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1answer
25 views
Why is therapeutic index a ratio instead of an interval?
The therapeutic index of a drug is defined as its toxic dose ($TD_{50}$) divided by its effective dose ($ED_{50}$). Why is it defined as a ratio rather than the difference $TD_{50} - ED_{50}$?
For ...
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1answer
61 views
What is the difference between Molecular and Cellular tolerance?
Although I've read that there are three types of tolerance, molecular cellular and behavioural, I cannot seem to find any mechanism of cellular other than desensitization of receptors. If someone can ...
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1answer
50 views
Is PrEP used for anything other than HIV?
In the field of HIV prevention, PrEP is an abbreviation of pre-exposure prophylaxis. This is a very generic term. Are any diseases other than HIV prevented using a similar approach? Do they use the ...
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1answer
116 views
How does the dopamine spike from drugs compare quantitatively to pleasurable non-drug activities?
I did find this popular press article that quotes a researcher offering the following quantification: "in lab experiments done on animals, sex causes dopamine levels to jump from 100 to 200 units, and ...
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What is the relevance of the constant in the clearance equation?
I have seen the equation for drug half lives described variously as (0.7xVd)/Cl, (0.693xVd)/Cl, and (ln2xVd)/Cl.
What is the origin of this numerical constant in the numerator? What does it signify?
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1answer
121 views
Is it true that ethanol can have some positive effects?
I recently was reading this inforgrafics about excessive alcohol use. It is written:
No one should begin drinking or drink more frequently based on
potential health benefits
I am surprised. Is ...
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1answer
37 views
Can a drug induce specific mechanism of resistance in tumors?
For example, can a drug that targets a given protein induce overexpression of that protein or increase the copy number of the gene coding that protein?
I strongly suspect that antineoplastic ...
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0answers
17 views
Gaba and Magnesium
I read read that magnesium divalent ion binds to gaba receptors and induces the same effects as if gaba has binded. Does anyone know what happens to the gaba that would have been synthesised and ...
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0answers
26 views
Could Racemic Epinephrine be used to Treat Anaphylaxis? [closed]
To be clear, this question is not a personal health question nor a question seeking health advice, it is only a theoretical question born of a curiosity for the pharmacology and biochemistry of ...
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1answer
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Does ingestion of alcohol with methylphenidate make it act more like dexmethylphenidate?
Methylphenidate (MPH) is a dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. It is the racemic mixture of d-MPH and l-MPH. According to the binding profile info on Wikipedia, based on studies, it is at ...
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1answer
51 views
Why males are more prone to cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks than females?
I often see more people of males undergoing treatment for heart disease. It is often said that female reproductive hormone (oestrogen) has some cardio-protective action by preventing constriction of ...
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2answers
53 views
Can a person be infected with Polio even after vaccination in childhood?
We know that a person develops antibodies by active immunisation after the administration of vaccines (either in dead form / live attenuated form). Is there any chance of developing the same disease ...
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1answer
38 views
Are there pre-synaptic alpha 2 receptors in the post-ganglionic synapses of the heart?
Are there pre-synaptic alpha 2 receptors in the post-ganglionic synapses of the heart?
I haven't found any sources that clearly state whether they do or not. I'm also not sure if they exist in most ...
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Why do some texts say that noncompetitive antagonist dose no change in ED50 of agonist in Dose-respond curve?
Competitive antagonists increase the ED50 while the Emax remains the same. Non-competitive antagonists do not change the ED50 while decreases the Emax.
I wonder how does this happen as Non-...
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0answers
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Pharmacokinetics and cell-membrane permeability of Adenosine triphosphate disodium hydrate
【My Question】
(1) Please tell me the pharmacokinetics of this ATP (or Adenosine triphosphate disodium hydrate) when it is administered orally or intravenously. In particular, Does this material has ...
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268 views
Difference between “controlled release” vs “prolonged release”
My sister is using the epilepsy drug Tegretol which has both CR and retard (previous naming for prolonged release according to https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/5932/smpc) versions in different ...
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Can you predict what the metabolites of pipradrol would be? Are they similar to those of methylphenidate? [closed]
As these drugs are structurally very similar, I am curious about how the body would handle them. Ritalinic acid is a major metabolite of methylphenidate, but that's about all I know.
Thanks
...
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1answer
31 views
Protein inhibitory process
I usually find substances that activates proteins, like ApoA-I, but I don't find substances that inhibit it.
So in an experimental design, could I consider the absence of a drug that directly acts ...
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161 views
What's the difference between veterinary and human snake antivenom?
Recently, out of curiosity, I looked online if snake antivenom for humans were actually sold for individuals. I found out they aren't. Not only that, but bills can get really high on countries that ...
