Pharmacology Terms
Pharmacology studies how drugs act on the body and how the body handles drugs. These terms cover pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, receptors, agonists and antagonists, measures such as half-life and therapeutic index, and major drug classes.
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A
- AcetylcholineNeuroscienceAcetylcholine is the neurotransmitter motor neurons use to make skeletal muscles contract, and a key messenger in the autonomic nervous system and brain.
- Active siteBiochemistryThe active site is the pocket or groove on an enzyme where the substrate binds and the chemical reaction is catalyzed.
- AgonistPharmacologyAn agonist is a drug or natural substance that binds to a receptor and activates it, producing a biological response.
- AnesthesiaSurgeryAnesthesia is a medically induced loss of sensation or awareness, produced by drugs called anesthetics, that prevents pain during surgery and other procedures.
- AntagonistPharmacologyAn antagonist is a drug that binds to a receptor without activating it, blocking the natural signal or an agonist from producing an effect.
- AntibioticMicrobiologyAn antibiotic is a drug that kills bacteria or stops them from growing, used to treat or prevent bacterial infections; it has no effect on viruses.
- Antibiotic resistanceMicrobiologyAntibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to survive and multiply despite an antibiotic that once killed them or stopped their growth.
- AnticoagulantPharmacologyAn anticoagulant is a substance that slows blood clotting by interfering with clotting factors, used to prevent and treat harmful blood clots.
- Antiviral drugPharmacologyAn antiviral drug is a medicine that treats or prevents a viral infection by blocking a step in the virus's life cycle inside the host's cells.
B
- Beta blockerPharmacologyA beta blocker is a drug that stops epinephrine and norepinephrine from acting on beta receptors, which slows the heart and lowers blood pressure.
- BioavailabilityPharmacologyBioavailability is the fraction of a drug dose that reaches the general circulation unchanged, along with how quickly it gets there.
- Blood–brain barrierNeuroscienceThe blood–brain barrier is the tightly sealed lining of the brain's capillaries that controls which substances can pass from the blood into brain tissue.
C
- ChemotherapyOncologyChemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs that kill rapidly dividing cells or stop them from multiplying, usually given in repeated cycles.
- Competitive inhibitionBiochemistryCompetitive inhibition is enzyme inhibition in which a molecule resembling the substrate occupies the active site and keeps the substrate out.
- Cytochrome P450PharmacologyCytochrome P450 is a large family of heme-containing enzymes that oxidize drugs, toxins and the body's own molecules, working mainly in the liver.
D
- DopamineNeuroscienceDopamine is a catecholamine neurotransmitter made from tyrosine that helps control movement, motivation and learning from reward.
- Dose–response curvePharmacologyA dose–response curve is a graph showing how the size of a drug's effect changes as its dose or concentration increases.
F
H
- Half-lifePharmacologyHalf-life is the time it takes for the concentration of a drug in the blood, or its amount in the body, to fall by half.
- HistamineImmunologyHistamine is a small signaling molecule, released mainly by mast cells and basophils, that drives many allergy symptoms and also controls stomach acid.
N
- NeurotransmitterNeuroscienceA neurotransmitter is a chemical messenger that a neuron releases at a synapse to excite or inhibit a target neuron, muscle cell or gland cell.
- NSAIDPharmacologyAn NSAID is a non-steroid medicine, such as ibuprofen or aspirin, that relieves pain, fever and inflammation by blocking cyclooxygenase enzymes.
O
P
- PenicillinPharmacologyPenicillin is a group of beta-lactam antibiotics, first found in a mold, that kill bacteria by blocking the building of their cell walls.
- PharmacodynamicsPharmacologyPharmacodynamics is the study of what a drug does to the body: how it acts on its molecular target and how its effects vary with dose.
- PharmacokineticsPharmacologyPharmacokinetics is the study of how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes and excretes a drug, and how drug levels change over time.
- PlaceboPharmacologyA placebo is an inactive treatment, such as a sugar pill or a sham procedure, made to look like a real one and used for comparison in clinical trials.
R
- Randomized controlled trialEpidemiologyA randomized controlled trial is an experiment that assigns people by chance to a treatment or a comparison group to test whether the treatment works.
- ReceptorPharmacologyA receptor is a protein, on a cell's surface or inside it, that binds a specific signaling molecule and triggers a response in the cell.
- Renin–angiotensin–aldosterone systemPhysiologyThe renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system is a hormone cascade, begun by renin from the kidneys, that raises blood pressure and blood volume when they fall.
S
- SerotoninNeuroscienceSerotonin is a chemical messenger made from tryptophan that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and as a signal in the gut and blood.
- StatinPharmacologyA statin is a cholesterol-lowering drug that blocks HMG-CoA reductase, the liver enzyme that controls how fast the body makes its own cholesterol.
T
- Therapeutic indexPharmacologyThe therapeutic index is a ratio comparing the dose of a drug that causes toxicity with the dose that produces the desired effect.
- ToxicologyPharmacologyToxicology is the science of poisons: how chemicals and other agents harm living things, at what doses, and how poisoning is detected and treated.
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