Pharmaceuticals
When something goes awry with your health, the first place to go is the hospital. From there, you are perscribed some medicine with the direction to take a certain quanity in a certain amount of time each day. How exactly do these pharmaceutical drugs work in response to the diseases they are designed to treat?
What Are Pharmaceuticals?
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​Pharmaceuticals are simplistically defined and broadly defined as a substance created chemically to be utilized for possibly the cure, treatment, and prevention of a disease.
How Do These Pharmaceutical Drugs Work?​
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​If analyzed from a broad perspective, pharmaceuticals generally work by interacting with the receptors located on the cell's surface or by interacting with the enzymes. This relationship is commonly described as a "lock and key" relationship.
One way these drugs work is by binding to the target receptor, the drug can block the function of the protein or even copy its effects.
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Key Terms
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​​​Agonist: ​An agonist is a substance that will mimic another substance and as a result stimulate a reaction.
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- Examples: Morphine, Nicotine, Phenylephrine, and Isoproterenol
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​Antagonist: An antagonist is the opposite of an agonist. An antagonist is a substance that will go against and block a certain action.
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- Examples: Beta-blockers such as propranolol
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While some pharmaceuticals bind to receptor molecules, others target enzymes. A drug that targets a specific enzyme is known as an inhibitor or an activator.​
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- Examples: Aspirin, Cox-2 inhibitor, and HIV protease inhibitor
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​Aspirin and other Non-Steroidal anti-inflammatory inhibitor
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​Drugs classified under the non-steroidal inflammatory inhibitor (NSAIDs) block the cyclooxygenase pathway. So, what exactly occurs in this pathway? To begin with, a fatty acid by the name of arachidonic acid, is converted by the enzyme cyclooxygenase to create different prostaglandins - also known as a group of lipids created at the site of damaged tissues. These prostaglandins continue to stimulate other regulatory function such as inflammation. Therefore, in order for this drug to function, the protein, prostaglandin, is blocked.
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Click on the video to the right to see how pain relievers such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen work!
The Role Played in Diseases​
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When diagnosed with any particular disease, the doctor immediately writes up a perscription with the directions to take a certain amount every few hours. In order to fully understand the effect of these drugs in response to these diseases, let's take a look at some of the most commonly diagnosed diseases in the world.
HIV / AIDS
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​​HIV, a shorthand abbreviation for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and it is a virus that is commonly referred to as a sexually transmitted disease. HIV is a condition of Aquired Immune Deficiency or AIDS.
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Watch the video on the left to learn more about HIV/AIDS and their relationship with each other!
Classes of drugs used to treat HIV:
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​ Reverse transcriptase inhibitors
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Watch the video on the left to learn more about the reverse transcriptase inhibitors that are used in response to HIV.
There are two types of reverse transcriptase inhibitors: Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and Nucleoide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs).​
Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)
NRTIs can be classified as