GENERAL

PHARMACOLOGY(1)
BY
DR ABDEL BASET TAHER
PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS and
PEDIATRIC CONSULTANT
2020

MBBS-Y1, SEM2
PHARMACOLOGY
AN OVERVIEW
Learning Objectives
1. Definition of terms: pharmacology, drugs,
toxicology.
2. Illustrate naming of drugs.
3. Classify drugs into POM, OTC, Orphan
drug.
4. Describe aspects of pharmacology.
5. Provide knowledge on history of pharmacology
and sources of drugs.
Definition of pharmacology:
Studying the action of drugs on living
cells and the mechanism of action
OR The art of treatment of diseases
Drugs:
chemical agents that affect living
processes and used in treatment,
prevention or diagnosis of disease.

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Drug names:
Many drugs have a variety of names. This may
cause confusion to the patient, physician,
and nurse, so care must be taken in
obtaining the exact name and spelling of a
particular drug.
.Chemical name:
Shows the chemical constitution of the
drug.
.Generic name (non proprietary name):
Before a drug becomes official, it's given
a generic name or common name. A generic
name is simpler than the chemical name. It
may be used in any country and by any
manufacturer. The first letter is not capitalized.
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.Trade name or proprietary name:
It's followed by the symbol R , this indicates that the
name is registered and that its use is restricted to the
owner of the drug who is usually the Manufactures.
The trade names are made easier to pronounce, spell
and remember. The first letter is capitalized.
Example (Ampicillin antibiotic):
.Chemical name: 4-thia-1-azabicyyclo [3.2.0]
heptane-2-carboylic acid, 6………….
.Generic name: ampicillin.
.Trade name: principer, Ampicid.

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Drug classification:
1. Prescription only medications
(POM): restricted for sale by
prescription only
2. Over the counter drugs (OTC):
used by public without a prescription
e.g. analgesic antipyretic
3. Orphan drugs: Drugs used to treat
rare diseases e.g. recombinant
antihemophilic factor PROF. DR ABDEL BASET TAHER
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N.B. Toxicology is a branch of pharmacology
that deals with undesirable effects of
chemicals on living systems.
● Main aspects of pharmacology:
1- Pharmacokinetics: what the body does to the drug? OR
The study of the kinetics of the drug which include Absorption,
Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion (ADME)
2- Pharmacodynamics: what the drug does to the body? OR
The study of the pharmacological actions of drugs and their
mechanisms of action.
3- Pharmacotherapeutics: proper selection and use of drugs
for prevention and treatment of disease.
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HISTORY
*Prehistoric people recognized the beneficial or toxic
effects of many plant and animal materials. The
earliest written record from China and from Egypt
list remedies of many types, a few still recognized
as useful drugs.
* 2500 years preceding the modern era, there were
sporadic attempts to introduce rational methods
into medicine, but none were successful owing to
the thought that tend to explain biology and
disease without the need for experimentation and
observation.
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• Around the end of 17th century, reliance on
observation and experimentation
develops. Physicians in Great Britain and
elsewhere in Europe began to apply them to
the effects of traditional drugs used in their
practice. Thus materia medica (the science
of drug preparation and use of drugs)
began to develop as the precursor to
pharmacology.

* In the late 18th century Francois Magendi

and Claude Bernard began to develop
experimental animal physiology and
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In late 18th, 19th, 20th centuries, advances in
chemistry and physiology laid the foundation
for understanding how drugs work.
* 50 years ago, information accumulated
about drug action, receptors. Many new drug
groups and new members of old groups
have been introduced; the last 3 decades
have seen rapid growth of information and
understanding molecular basis for drug
action.
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● Sources of drugs:
1- Plant sources e.g. leaves of belladonna for
atropine, bark of cinchona for quinine and
quinidine.
2- Animal sources e.g. insulin from pancreas
of animals, heparin from liver or lung
tissues.
3- Mineral sources e.g. Mg sulphate, I131, P

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4- Microorganisms e.g. fungi and bacteria are
sources of antibiotics as penicillin.
5- Synthetic drugs e.g. barbiturate, salicylate.
6- Biotechnology e.g. human insulin, growth
hormone have been produced by genetic
engineering.

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PHARMACOLOGY & GENETICS
It has been known for centuries that certain
diseases are inherited, and we now
understand that individuals with such
diseases have a heritable abnormality in
their DNA.
During the last 10 years, the genomes of
humans, mice, and many other organisms
have been decoded in considerable detail.
This has opened the door to a remarkable range of
new approaches to research and treatment.
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It is now possible in the case of some inherited
diseases to define exactly which DNA base
pairs are anomalous and in which
chromosome they appear. In a small number
of animal models of such diseases, it has
been possible to correct the abnormality by
gene therapy, ie, insertion of an appropriate
"healthy" gene into somatic cells.
Human somatic cell gene therapy has been
attempted, but the technical difficulties are
great.

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Some patients respond to certain drugs with
greater than usual sensitivity to standard
doses. It is now clear that such increased
sensitivity is often due to a very small
genetic modification that results in
decreased activity of a particular enzyme
responsible for eliminating that drug.
Pharmacogenomics (or pharmacogenetics)
is the study of the genetic variations that
cause differences in drug response among
individuals or populations. Future clinicians
may screen every patient for a variety of such
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differences before prescribing a drug.
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