GENERAL PHARMACOLOGY
- Branches of Pharmacology.
- Definition and classification of drugs: medicament; poison (or toxic); causal or etiological, pathogenetic, symptomatic, replacement drugs; orphan drugs.
- Origin and nature of the drugs: drug from natural origin, drug from partial chemical synthesis, drug derived from chemical synthesis.
- Selective toxicity.
- Drug action: sites of drug action (local, regional, systemic); factors and conditions affecting drug effect (related to drug, to formulation, to patient, to environment); (main or therapeutic, secondary and side) drug effects.
- Pharmacodynamic concepts: definition, classification and regulation of receptors; agonists, antagonists, partial agonists, inverse agonists; definition of affinity, potency and efficacy; graded and quantal dose-response curves; therapeutic index, margin of safety, therapeutic window.
- Pharmacokinetics: drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
- Drug absorption: transfer of drugs across biological membranes (passive diffusion, carrier-mediated transport, endocytosis, exocytosis); Henderson-Hasselbach equation; routes of drug administration (natural and artificial), factors affecting drug absorption (related to drug, to formulation, to patient); delayed absorption.
- Drug distribution in the body: drug binding to plasma proteins and tissue; blood-brain barrier; placental barrier; factors affecting drug distribution.
- Drug metabolism or biotransformation: phase I and phase II reactions; first-pass effect; factors affecting drug metabolism (enzyme induction and inhibition, genetic polymorphism, disease, age, gender).
- Drug excretion: primary and secondary routes of drug excretion; factors affecting drug excretion.
- Pharmacokinetic parameters: bioavailability and bioequivalence; volume of distribution; one- and multicompartment models; (total, renal, hepatic, pulmonary) clearance; first and zero order elimination kinetics; extraction ratio; elimination half-life; drug accumulation; steady-state; loading dose, maintenance dose, therapeutic drug monitoring, drug dosage in children and elderly.
- Adverse drug reactions: type A and type B; idiosyncratic drug reactions; drug allergy; tolerance; tachyphylaxis; drug dependence; withdrawal syndrome; phototoxicity.
- Combination therapy: drug indifference; (physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic) drug interactions.
- Drug development: toxicological animal testing (acute, subacute and chronic toxicity, effects on reproduction, carcinogenic and mutagenic potential); clinical testing (phases I, II, III, IV).
PHARMACOGNOSY
- Instability in active compound concentration: endogenous and exogenous factors.
- Production and preservation of drugs: drying, stabilization, sterilization; chemical analysis and quality control.
- Plant materials containing carbohydrates: monosaccharides; hexavalent alcohols (manna); disaccharides; polysaccharides (starch, cellulose, dextrans, inulin, pectins, gum Arabic, guar gum, psyllium, alginic acid, agar agar, carrageenan, althaea officinalis, malva, linum, tilia). Drugs containing carbohydrates and short chain organic acid: cassia fistula, tamarindus.
- Plant materials containing lipids: satured fatty acids, unsatured, essential; fatty acid n-3 (omega-3) and n-6 (omega-6); glycerides; food olis; ricinus oil; wax;serenoa, prunus africana, pumpkin.
- Plant materials containing saponins: steroidal (smilax, panax ginseng); terpenoids (polygala, hyppocastanum, quillaja, glycirrhiza).
- Plant materials containing active steroid compounds: digitalis drugs (digitalis purpurea, digitalis lanata, strophantus, drimia maritime).
- Plant materials containing essences and resins: terpene (citrus aurantium, a. absinthium, a. cina, matricaria recutita, valeriana officinalis, menthe piperita, melissa officinalis, arnica montana, pinus oilresin, canphora, commiphora, boswelia, curcuma longa); phenolic (anisum, foeniculum, acorus calamus, cinnamom, eugenia cariophyllata, thymus, cannabis sativa).
- Plant materials containing active phenolic and polyphenolic compounds: anthraquinone drugs (aloe, cascara sagrada, frangula, rhubarb, senna); drugs containing flavonoids (ginkgo, hypericum); arbutin drugs (uva ursi); glucoside drugs of the salicylic series (salix); tannin drugs (gall nuts of Aleppo, hamamelis).
- Plant materials containing alkaloids: diterpene (aconitum); tropane (belladonna, hyosciamus, stramonium, coca); imidazole (jaborandi); isoquinoline (opium, hydrastis, boldo, ipecac, curare); indole (rauwolfia, yohimbe, physostigma venenosum, nux vomica, claviceps purpurea); quinoline (cinchona); pyridine and piperidines (betel nut, tobacco, conium, lobelia, punica granatum, piper nigrum capsicum); purine (cocoa, coffea arabica, cola vera, thea sinensis, mate, guarana). Drugs containing phenylethylamines (ephedra).
- Plant materials containing active antitumor compounds: vinca rosea, podophyllum, taxus, colchicum.
- Plant materials containing active hallucinogenic compounds: peyote, psilocybe, amanita muscaria.