"Pharmacokinetics is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to determining the fate of substances administered to a living organism."
Molecular structure and properties of drugs, physicochemical properties of drugs like solubility, partition coefficient, pKa, etc.
Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure: This topic covers the principles of chemical bond formation and molecular structure, which is crucial for understanding the behavior of drug molecules.
Organic Chemistry: Organic chemistry teaches the synthesis of organic compounds, which includes drugs. Organic chemistry principles are the foundation of medicinal chemistry.
Biochemistry: Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes that occur within living organisms. The knowledge gained from biochemistry is useful in understanding drug metabolism, drug-receptor interactions, and drug transport.
Pharmacology: Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their effects on the body, which makes it a critical subject area in drug discovery, development, and implementation.
Bioanalysis: The analysis of biological samples such as blood, plasma, and urine to determine the concentration of a drug, which is essential for drug development, safety and efficacy studies.
Drug Design: Drug design emphasizes the study of structure-activity relationships, which can be used to develop new drugs or identify new targets for existing drugs.
Drug Delivery Systems: This topic covers various methods used to deliver drugs to the body, including oral, parenteral, topical and inhalation routes. The effectiveness of a drug is based on its delivery system.
Drug Metabolism: Drug metabolism is the chemical alteration of a drug in the body. Understanding drug metabolism pathways is critical in determining drug safety, drug interactions, and drug efficacy.
Pharmacokinetics: Pharmacokinetics is the study of how drugs move through the body, including absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. The knowledge of pharmacokinetics is essential for establishing dosing regimens and evaluating drug safety and efficacy.
Toxicology: This topic covers the toxic effects of drugs, including symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Understanding toxicology is fundamental in drug safety assessment and risk mitigation.
Computational Drug Design: This topic is essential when designing new drugs using computer-assisted techniques. This includes molecular modeling, chemical informatics, and virtual screening.
Drug Repurposing: Drug repurposing involves utilizing existing drugs to treat different diseases or disorders. This helps to reduce the cost, time, and regulatory hurdles of drug development.
Medical Pharmacology: Medical pharmacology focuses on the clinical application of drugs in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. It involves the study of drug-drug interactions, patient variability, mechanisms of action, and side effects.
Pharmaceutical Formulation: Pharmaceutical formulation emphasizes drug formulation design, selection of excipients, manufacturing, and quality control. It is crucial to ensure drug safety, efficacy, and quality.
Drug patenting and Intellectual Property Rights: This topic describes the methods and principles for protecting the intellectual property of drugs and pharmaceutical products. It plays an essential role in drug discovery, development, and commercialization.
"The substances of interest include any chemical xenobiotic such as: pharmaceutical drugs, pesticides, food additives, cosmetics, etc."
"It attempts to analyze chemical metabolism and to discover the fate of a chemical from the moment that it is administered up to the point at which it is completely eliminated from the body."
"Pharmacokinetics is the study of how an organism affects a drug, whereas pharmacodynamics (PD) is the study of how the drug affects the organism."
"Both together influence dosing, benefit, and adverse effects, as seen in PK/PD models."