| CODE | CPH1901 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Drug Receptor Theory | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The majority of drug actions are brought about by receptor-mediated mechanisms. This study-unit will provide students with the crucial knowledge which is required to understand drug actions. The main receptor pharmacology topics will include receptor structure and official classification, single and dual-state receptor models, receptor signaling mechanisms and pathways, agonism, antagonism, inverse agonism, decoy receptors, signal biasing, drug-receptor interaction kinetics, receptor cross-talk, receptor trafficking, receptor expression and regulation, post-translational modification, tachyphylaxis, dose-response relationships, efficacy, potency and kinetics of receptor occupancy. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit aims to lay the necessary foundation in order to enable students to understand the principles of receptor mediated drug action. Students will receive a broad spectrum of molecular pharmacology knowledge which is required in order to be able to understand the material delivered in successive study-units. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Define basic terminology used in receptor pharmacology; - Describe the different receptor classes and explain their actions; - Describe the different types of receptor signaling; - Relate receptor signaling to cellular effects; - Distinguish differences between in vitro and in vivo receptor signaling effects; - Discuss the combined effects of multiple receptor signaling. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Evaluate how clinical therapeutic effects occur as a result of receptor signalling pathways; - Explore literature data which relates to new signaling pathways, and receptor regulation, and evaluate new reported findings in the light of current knowledge; - Predict potential receptor cross-talk in known signaling pathways; - Discuss and compare specific drugs in terms of their receptor pharmacology. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main text: - Ritter JM, Flower RJ, Henderson G, Loke YK, MacEwan D, Rang HP. Rang & Dale's Pharmacology. 9th Ed. 2019. Elsevier. - British National Formulary. Pharmaceutical Press. (issued bi-annually). Supplementary readings: - Trevor AJ, Katzung BG. Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. 15th Ed. 2021. Mcgraw Hill Medical. - Brunton L, Knollmann B, Hilal-Dandan R.Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 13th Ed. 2017. McGraw-Hill Education. Revision aids: - Karen Whalen. Lippincott Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology. 2018. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Journals: - Molecular pharmacology. Published by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. - British Journal of Pharmacology. Published by the British Pharmacological Society. - British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Published by the British Pharmacological Society. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Anthony Fenech Godwin Mario Grech Laura Grech Janet Mifsud Vanessa Petroni (Co-ord.) Marita Vella Nathan Vella |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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