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Drug metabolism is the metabolic breakdown of drugs by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. More generally, xenobiotic metabolism (from the Greek xenos "stranger" and biotic "related to living beings") is the set of metabolic pathways that modify the chemical structure of xenobiotics, which are compounds foreign to an organism's normal biochemistry, such as any drug ...
Others include a phase that combines distribution, metabolism and excretion into a disposition phase. Other authors include the drug's toxicological aspect in what is known as ADME-Tox or ADMET. The two phases of metabolism and excretion can be grouped together under the title elimination.
A mechanism of action usually includes mention of the specific molecular targets to which the drug binds, such as an enzyme or receptor. [3] Receptor sites have specific affinities for drugs based on the chemical structure of the drug, as well as the specific action that occurs there.
The mechanism of action is a crucial factor in determining effect and toxicity of the drug, taking in consideration the pharmacokinetic (PK) factors. [12] The sort and extent of altered cellular physiology will depend on the combination of the drug's presence (as established by pharmacokinetic (PK) studies) and/or its mechanism and duration of ...
The action of drugs on the human body (or any other organism's body) is called pharmacodynamics, and the body's response to drugs is called pharmacokinetics. The drugs that enter an individual tend to stimulate certain receptors, ion channels, act on enzymes or transport proteins. As a result, they cause the human body to react in a specific way.
Pharmacotherapy, also known as pharmacological therapy or drug therapy, is defined as medical treatment that utilizes one or more pharmaceutical drugs to improve ongoing symptoms (symptomatic relief), treat the underlying condition, or act as a prevention for other diseases (prophylaxis).
Dr. A. Thomas McLellan, the co-founder of the Treatment Research Institute, echoed that point. “Here’s the problem,” he said. Treatment methods were determined “before anybody really understood the science of addiction. We started off with the wrong model.” For families, the result can be frustrating and an expensive failure.
The phases of clinical research are the stages in which scientists conduct experiments with a health intervention to obtain sufficient evidence for a process considered effective as a medical treatment. [1] For drug development, the clinical phases start with testing for drug safety in a few human subjects, then expand to many study ...