Pharmacology 2060A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cytochrome P450, Drug Metabolism, Prodrug
14 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Metabolism is the enzyme mediated alternation of a. Metabolism is also referred to as biotransformation. Drug metabolism is important for humans to protect us from a number of environmental toxins as well as synthesize essential endogenous molecules. Common exogenous toxins that drug metabolism protects us from are: alcohol, medications, drugs, cigarettes, marijuana, meat. Essential endogenous molecules synthesized by drug metabolizing enzymes are: vit d synthesis, bile acid synthesis, cholesterol metabolism, steroid hormones, bilirubin. Note that even things like veggies considered to be healthy would be toxic if we didn"t have enzymes to process them. Drug metabolism can have several different consequences. 2: increase drug toxicity, non-toxic toxic. In the most clinical situations the concentration of drug is much lower than the metabolic capacity of the body. In these situations drug metabolism displays 1st order kinetics. In 1st order kinetics drug metabolism is directly proportional to the concentration of free drug.
