Pharmacology and pharmacokinetics

GOALS

This course introduces the basic concepts of pharmacology, including pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics and chrono-pharmacology. These topics will be illustrated by examples and exercises.

CONTENTS

·      Introduction to Pharmacology and general topics of pharmacology

·      Pharmacokinetics: principal models and parameters, Drug Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion (ADME)

·      Chronopharmacology: effect of circadian rhythm on drug action

·      Pharmacogenetics: candidate genes for variable drug response.

·      Pharmacodynamics: Drug-target interaction, quantitative description of ligand binding, relationship between ligand binding   and functional effect, antagonism; exercises

·      Classes of drug targets: functional and structural aspects, strategies of drug targeting; examples

·      Drug Discovery and Development: outline of the different steps of drug develpoment