B016451 - GENERAL PHARMACOLOGY AND APPLIED PHARMACOLOGY

Italian

The course provides general principles of pharmacology, i.e. the mechanisms of drug action, divided it into pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Basic knowledge of pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics will also be provided
The course provides basic knowledge aimed to the identification, characterization and development of new drugs.

. Rang & Dale "Pharmacology", 8° Edition EDRA 2016

Students will learn the principles regulating absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) of drugs, as well as the general mechanisms of pharmacological effects with particular focus on drug-receptor interaction and transduction mechanisms.

Exams from the first year of the course are strongly recommended before attending the course, as well asgeneral and applied biochemistry

Frontal lessons in General Pharmacology (3 CFU), frontal lessons in Pharmacological Essays (1 CFU) and group or individual laboratory exercises (2 CFU) for the Pharmacological Essays course (attendance is mandatory for the Pharmacological Essays course). At the end of the laboratory section, students will process experimental data collected during the course by using specific softwares. Students are required to present a report on the laboratory experiences performed before oral examination.

e-mail andrea.lapucci@unifi.it
elisabetta.coppi@unifi.it

Final examination consists in an oral interview to check knowledge of the course's issues. Students are required to submit, a few days before the oral exam, the written report of the laboratory experiences carried out during the course. The exam can be booked by registering on the online lists. Unless otherwise specified, the exam will take place at the Department of Neurofarba.

Routes of drug administration. Absorption, distribution and biotransport processes: mechanisms of passive diffusion, active and facilitated transport, phagocytosis and pinocytosis. Factors influencing drug distribution, plasma protein binding. Drug metabolism: phase I and phase II reactions. Induction and inhibition of drug metabolism. Factors influencing biotransformation: differences in sex, species, age and physiological and pathological conditions. Drug excretion: renal excretion, biliary excretion. Other routes of drug excretion. Pharmacokinetics: volume of distribution, clearance, t1/2; first-order and zero-order kinetics. Bioavailability. Pharmacodynamics: ion channels (VOC and ROC), transporters, enzymes. Membrane receptors (GPCR, TRK); receptor specificity and signal transduction: adenylate cyclase, guanylate cyclase, phospholipase C. Growth factor receptors. Protein kinases and phosphatases. Intracellular receptors for drugs, hormones and endogenous mediators. Study methods of receptors: dose-response relationship; chemical bonds in drug-receptor interaction, quantitative aspects in drug-receptor interaction, efficacy and intrinsic activity. Agonists and antagonists (physiological and pharmacological antagonism, competitive and non-competitive antagonists). Inverse agonists. Studies of bindings.
Pharmacological Assays Program - Spectrophotometric dosages, preparation of calibration lines, protein dosage (Bradford method and Lowry method). microbiological techniques. Methods of preparation of cell cultures. Cell viability analysis methods for the determination of the cytotoxicity of drugs and xenobiotics. MTT test on eukaryotic cell lines and analysis of results. Preparation and analysis of nucleic acids. Processing and statistical evaluation of data obtained from in vitro experimentation.

The course addresses to the realization of the UN objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In particular, the course addresses "Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being"