Pharmacology 2060A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Drug Tolerance, Agonist, Intrinsic Activity

• School: Western University
• Department: Pharmacology
• Course: Pharmacology 2060A/B
• Professor: Andrea Di Sebastiano

Document Summary

Pharmacology 2060b module 8: pharmacodynamics drug receptor interactions. In the last module we learned that most drugs work by binding to receptors. There are two receptor theories that we use to describe drug receptor interactions. The simple occupancy theory states: the intensity of a drug"s response is proportional to the number of receptors occupied, the maximal response occurs when all the receptors are occupied. This implies that two drugs that act at the same receptor. We know this because there are many drugs that act at the should produce the same effect this is not true! same receptor yet have different efficacies. The modified occupancy theory identifies that some characteristics of drug receptor interactions cannot be accounted for by the simple occupancy theory. In summary, in addition to accounting for the number of receptors occupied, the modified occupancy theory takes into account the affinity of the drug for the receptor and the ability of the drug to activate the receptor.