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 Pharmacology: An Essential Branch of Medicine and Science

Pharmacology is a vast field with applications ranging from the discovery of new drugs to the management of diseases. Broadly speaking, it is divided into two major branches: pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics.

Articles of Interest

A brief history of pharmacology

Pharmacology is one of the cornerstones of the drug discovery process. The medicinal chemist may create the candidate compound, but the pharmacologist is the one who tests it for physiologic activity. A promising compound is investigated by many other scientists—toxicologists, microbiologists, clinicians—but only after the pharmacologist has documented a potential therapeutic effect.

How do researchers determine how toxic a chemical is? A toxicologist explains alternatives to animal testing

A vast number of chemicals are registered for production and use around the world. But only a portion have been thoroughly evaluated for their toxicity due to time, cost, ethical concerns and regulatory limitations.

Pharmacology vs. Pharmacy: What’s the Difference?

Pharmacology is the study of how drugs function within the human body to help fight disease and the discovery and testing of new drugs for that purpose. It is one critical element of the drug development process. This multidisciplinary, research-heavy field combines medicinal chemistry, drug delivery, and biomedical research. Pharmacologists may study existing drugs and/or those still being evaluated for safety and efficacy, depending on their field of research.

Spotlight on: Pharmacology

Why is pharmacology important? Drugs affect all of us in one way or another, through the medicines that we take, the problem of drugs in sport, the everyday consumption of alcohol and caffeine in drinks, environmental pollution and many other aspects of modern life. Pharmacology is vital for discovering new medicines to help fight common diseases such as cancer, depression and heart disease, as well as many other serious diseases. It is also essential for understanding the unwanted side effects of medicines, the reasons why individuals differ in the way they respond to drugs and why some drugs cause addiction.

The fall and rise of pharmacology – (Re-)defining the discipline?

Pharmacology is an integrative discipline that originated from activities, now nearly 7000 years old, to identify therapeutics from natural product sources. Research in the 19th Century that focused on the Law of Mass Action (LMA) demonstrated that compound effects were dose-/concentration-dependent eventually leading to the receptor concept, now a century old, that remains the key to understanding disease causality and drug action. As pharmacology evolved in the 20th Century through successive biochemical, molecular and genomic eras, the precision in understanding receptor function at the molecular level increased and while providing important insights, led to an overtly reductionistic emphasis.

The Role of Pharmacology in Modern Medicine: From Drug Discovery to Clinical Applications

Pharmacology has numerous clinical applications, including the treatment of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological disorders. It is also used in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, as well as in pain management and anesthesia. Additionally, pharmacology plays a crucial role in drug safety and drug interactions.

What is Clinical Pharmacology?

Clinical pharmacology is the study of drugs in humans. It is underpinned by the basic science of pharmacology, with added focus on the application of pharmacological principles and methods in the real world. It has a broad scope, from the discovery of new target molecules, to the effects of drug usage in whole populations.

What is Pharmacology?

Pharmacology is often described as a bridge science because it incorporates knowledge and skills from a number of basic science disciplines including physiology, biochemistry and cell and molecular biology.

Resources

Frontiers in Pharmacology

The world's most cited pharmacology and pharmacy journal, advancing global pharmacological discoveries to prevent and treat human disease.

Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Pharmacology & Therapeutics presents lucid, critical and authoritative reviews of currently important topics in pharmacology, including the actions of drugs, and/or the exploitation of drug targets. Disease pathophysiology is relevant provided it is part of a narrative around drug actions or new …