Course Details
Course Information Package
Course Unit Title | BIOPHARMACY & PHARMACOKINETICS | ||||||||
Course Unit Code | PHA301 | ||||||||
Course Unit Details | |||||||||
Number of ECTS credits allocated | 7 | ||||||||
Learning Outcomes of the course unit | By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
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Mode of Delivery | Face-to-face | ||||||||
Prerequisites | PHA206,PHA207 | Co-requisites | NONE | ||||||
Recommended optional program components | NONE | ||||||||
Course Contents | · A chemical introduction on drug action and xenobiotic behaviour. · Brief historical introduction to drug development and applications. · Impact of drugs on health and disease. · Differences and similarities between food and drugs. · General characteristics of drug molecules-Xenobiotics. Chemical bonds, drug properties and drug action. · Covalent, coordinated bonds, coulombic forces, hydrogen bond, van der Waals forces, lipid interactions. · Principles of selectivity based on differences in morphology, biochemistry and distribution. · Ways of drug loss, elements of drug absorption, distribution and excretion. Drug metabolism. Objectives, evolution, site, chemical nature of structural changes. Oxidations, reductions, hydrolyses and other phase I biotransformations. Conjugations with glucuronic acid, glycine, sulphate, glutathione, and other phase II biotransformations. · Molecular biology of cytochromes P450. P450 induction and inhibition. Biodetoxification, Biotoxication. · Drug metabolism and drug stereochemistry. Molecular aspects of drug-drug and drug-food interactions. Consequences of interactions, applications in therapy, elements of drug design and development. · The phases of drug action. The pharmaceutical phase. The pharmacokinetic phase. Sites of loss. Absorption, distribution and excretion of drugs. Mechanisms and factors involved in these phenomena: Sites and mechanisms of absorption, distribution of drugs in the body and the rules covering this phenomenon · Enterohepatic circulation, (blood) protein-drug binding, types of binding, rules governing binding, the phenomenon of dislocation, therapeutic applications. Excretion of drugs, urinary, biliary, other (saliva, sweat, milk, tears, sperm). · Pharmacokinetic parameters, volume of distribution, biological half-life, maximum plasma concentration, area under the curve, biodisposition. Pharmacokinetic and therapeutic bioavailability. Role of urinary pH, of pKa of drugs and of their molecular weight. The third phase is the pharmacodynamic phase. · Tutorial: Discussion and problem solving. Laboratory work: Determination of a drug in urine, saliva or blood, Effect of urinary pH, acidic, neutral, alkaline, on the excretion of drugs (weak electrolytes), Phase I drug metabolism, Phase II drug metabolism, Determination of urinary excretion rate of a drug administered per os or intra peritoneally, Determination of Cmax, t½ and AUC. | ||||||||
Recommended and/or required reading: | |||||||||
Textbooks |
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References |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods | The taught part of course is delivered to the students by means of lectures, conducted with the help of computer presentations. Lecture notes and presentations are available through the web for students to use in combination with the textbooks. Lectures are accompanied with tutorials and laboratory work which is carried out in the pharmacy laboratory. | ||||||||
Assessment methods and criteria |
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Language of instruction | Greek | ||||||||
Work placement(s) | NO |