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When two drugs affect each other, it is a drug–drug interaction (DDI). The risk of a DDI increases with the number of drugs used. [1] A large share of elderly people regularly use five or more medications or supplements, with a significant risk of side-effects from drug–drug interactions. [2] Drug interactions can be of three kinds ...
Receptor theory is the application of receptor models to explain drug behavior. [1] Pharmacological receptor models preceded accurate knowledge of receptors by many years. [ 2 ] John Newport Langley and Paul Ehrlich introduced the concept that receptors can mediate drug action at the beginning of the 20th century.
Furthermore, a drug effect ceases as a drug-receptor complex dissociates. Ariëns & Stephenson introduced the terms "affinity" & "efficacy" to describe the action of ligands bound to receptors. [15] [16] Affinity: The ability of a drug to combine with a receptor to create a drug-receptor complex.
Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, [1] including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. [2]
stabilizing action, the drug seems to act neither as a stimulant or as a depressant (ex.: some drugs possess receptor activity that allows them to stabilize general receptor activation, like buprenorphine in opioid dependent individuals or aripiprazole in schizophrenia, all depending on the dose and the recipient)
The specificity of drugs cannot be talked about without mentioning the affinity of the drugs. The affinity is a measure of how tightly a drug binds to the receptor. If the drug does not bind well, then the action of the drug will be shorter and the chance of binding will also be less.
These pharmacophore points may be located on the ligand itself or may be projected points presumed to be located in the receptor. The features need to match different chemical groups with similar properties, in order to identify novel ligands. Ligand-receptor interactions are typically "polar positive", "polar negative" or "hydrophobic".
By knowing the interaction between a certain site of a drug and a receptor, other drugs can be formulated in a way that replicates this interaction, thus producing the same therapeutic effects. Indeed, this method is used to create new drugs. It can help identify which patients are most likely to respond to treatment.