Pharmacology 3620 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Half-Life, Cardiac Arrhythmia, Paracetamol

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Describe the major mechanisms and organs of drug elimination. A drug can be eliminated from the body by three major mechanisms: metabolism, urinary excretion, biliary excretion. The main organs responsible for drug elimination are the liver and the kidney. The liver is the major organ for drug metabolism and for biliary excretion, while the kidney is a key site for drug excretion. Substances foreign to the body (xenobiotics) are metabolized by the same enzymatic pathways and transport system that are utilized for dietary constituents. Many xenobiotics and drugs are lipophilic chemicals that, in the absence of metabolism, would not be efficiently eliminated and would accumulate in the body, possibly causing toxicity. Most drugs are subjected to metabolic pathways that convert these hydrophobic chemicals into more hydrophilic derivatives that are readily eliminated in urine or bile: drugs metabolized into forms that the liver and kidney recognize and excrete.

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