PHARMACOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- STEFANIA GESSI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/14
Training objectives
- The main goal of the course consists in providing basic knowledges of General Pharmacology related to Pharmacokinetics (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion) and pharmacodynamics (drug-receptor interactions). In particular, the course aims to provide the basic elements for understanding the action of drugs in the human body and their main protein targets including enzymes, transporters, ion channels, receptors and their transduction mechanisms. Finally the course is aimed to provide specific pharmacological information on the main neurotransmitters.
The main knowledge acquired will be:
general concepts of pharmacokinetics
general concepts of pharmacodynamics
evaluation of the mechanisms of drug action;
pharmacological modulation of neurotransmitters
The main skills (that are the ability to apply knowledge acquired) will be:
assessment of pharmacokinetic factors determining drug delivery and its effects;
analysis of the cellular and molecular target and mechanisms at the basis of drug effects;
assessment of factors underlying research and development of new drugs, including costs and risks and differences with homeopathic products. Prerequisites
- No formal propedeuticity is required, however basic knowledge of chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and anatomy are necessary.
Course programme
- The course forecasts 48 hours of teaching exerted as frontal lectures.
The following topics will be illustrated:
Outline of the pharmacology history (1 hour)
Phytotherapy and Homeopathy (2 hours)
Drug research and development (2 hours)
Pharmacokinetics:
Administration routes (2 hours)
Absorption (2 hours)
Distribution (2 hours)
Metabolism (2 hours)
Excretion (2 hours)
Bioavailability (1 hour)
Generic Drugs (2 hours)
Receptor theory in pharmacology (2 hours)
Dose-response curves (2 hours)
How to study the drug-receptor interactions (3 hours)
Therapeutic index (1 hour)
Kinetic models (2 hours)
Idiosyncrasy and drug-allergy (1 hour)
Tolerance and drug toxicity (2 hours)
Receptors classification (2 hours)
Neurotransmitters (15 hours):
cholinergic, adrenergic/dopaminergic, serotoninergic, histaminergic, gabaergic, glutamatergic, purinergic, peptidergic, opioid, nitric oxide and cannabinoid systems. Didactic methods
- The course is structured in frontal lectures for a total of 48 hours. Lesson are provided on a weekly basis by taking advantage of power-point slides.
Learning assessment procedures
- The aim of the exam is to verify at which level the learning objectives previously described have been acquired and the reasoning skills developed by the student on issues related to pharmacology.The assessment is expressed in thirtieths (minimum grade 18). With the exception of students manifesting problems, the exam is one test (multiple choice questions) constituted of 31 questions based on all the topics tackled in the class, with the aim of evaluating how deeply the student has studied the subject and how he is able to understand the basic topics analyzed. Each question is worth 1 point if correct, whilst wrong answer or no answer 0 points. To pass this test it is required to get at least 18 points out of 31 and 31 right answers correspond to 30/30 cum laude. The time allowed for this test is 30 minutes.
Reference texts
- Farmacologia. Rang, Dale, Ritter, Flower, Henderson;Editore Elsevier.
Farmacologia. Principi di base e applicazioni terapeutiche. Rossi, Cuomo, Riccardi; Edizioni Minerva Medica.
Power point presentation of lessons.
