Drugs and the Body -

PHARMACODYNAMICS
Terence L. Abinsay
Pharmacodynamics

The study of the drug mechanisms that produce

biochemical or physiologic changes in the body.

What happens to the body in response to the drug.

Interactions between chemical components of living

systems & foreign chemicals including drugs that enter
these system.

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Drug Action

▪ It refers to a drug's ability

to combine with a cellular
drug receptor.

▪ It can have a local or

systemic effect or both
▪ It is based on the half-life
of a drug
o Half-life – refers to
the time the drug
takes the body to
eliminate half of the
blood concentration
level of the original
drug

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Drug Actions:

▪ To replace or act as substitutes for

missing chemicals.

▪ To increase or stimulate certain

cellular activities.

▪ To depress or slow cellular activities.

▪ To interfere with the functioning of

foreign cells, such as invading
microorganisms or neoplasm.
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Medication
Management

▪ The purpose is to produce the

desired drug action by maintaining a
constant drug level
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Agonist Antagonist

• Drugs interact • A drug has an

directly with affinity for a
receptor sites to receptor but
cause the same displays little or no
activity that intrinsic activity.
natural chemicals • Competitive
Drug action may would cause at antagonist -
that site.
be: • e.g., penicillin
competes with the
agonist for
receptor sites
• Non-competitive
antagonist - binds
to receptor sites
and blocks the
effects of the
agonist
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Onset of Action
• The time it takes the body to respond to a drug after
administration

Duration
• The time a drug remains in the system in a concentration
great enough to have a therapeutic effect

Peak Plasma Level

Parameters of • drug reaches its highest blood / plasma concentration of
Drug Action a single drug dose before the elimination rate equals the
rate of absorption
[notable Trough/Termination of action
characteristics] • point from onset at which drug effect is no longer seen
• The lowest blood serum concentration of a drug;
measured immediately before the next scheduled dose
Plateau
• Maintenance of a certain blood concentration level if a
series of scheduled drug doses are administered
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z Theories of Drug Actions

Drug Receptors Interaction

• Receptor sites – location on a cell surface where certain molecules such as enzymes, hormones, drugs attach to interact with cell
component.
• Receptor sites react with certain chemicals to cause an effect within the cell.
• “lock and key theory”

Drug Enzyme Interactions

• Interferes with enzyme systems that act as catalyst from various chemical reactions.
• Enzyme systems
• Cascade effect; one enzyme activating another, causing cellular reaction.
• If single step in one of enzyme system is blocked, normal cell function is disrupted
• Ex. ACE inhibitors, inhibiting the release of angiotensin converting enzyme in the lungs, preventing the conversion of Angiotensin I to
Angiotensin II which is a powerful vasocontrictor, preventing an increase in blood pressure.

Selective Toxicity

• All chemotherapeutic agent would act only on 1 enzyme system needed for life of a pathogen or neoplastic cell & will nor affect healthy
cells.
• Ex. Penicillin

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Rapid
• few seconds to minutes.
• intravenous, sub-lingual,
inhalation

Classifications of Intermediate
Drug Actions • 1-2 hours after administration
• intramuscular, subcutaneous
Delayed/Slowed
• Several hours after
administration
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• oral and rectal

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Classifications
of Drugs
Body system they e.g.,

interact with cardiovascular

Drugs with
Drug's approved multiple
therapeutic uses
are usually
therapeutic classified in
accordance with
usage their most
common usage
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