PHAL 241: Drugs to Medicines Dr. Jonathan Falconer Senior Teaching Fellow Department of pharmacology and toxicology jonathan.falconer@otago.ac.nz What is Pharmacology? Pharmacology Pharmakon Drug or poison logia study of Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their effect on the body History of Pharmacology • 1700 BC - Mandrake (Genesis 30) • 1600 BC - Chinese herbal medicine • 1000 BC - Sacteya Grantham – ayurvedic text describing smallpox variolation in India • 1025 AD – Avicena - The Canon of Medicine • 1520 AD - Paracelsus What is a drug? • Drugs are chemicals that change the behaviour or function of an individual, system, organ, tissue, or invading organism • Drug effects are due to: – Chemical interactions between drug and the body – Psycho - social influences of the medication (Placebo ) • Mindset • Metacognition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9clzqhCN0 Crum, Alia J., et al. "Evaluation of the “rethink stress” mindset intervention: A metacognitive approach to changing mindsets ." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 152.9 (2023): 2603. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPxSzxylRCI What is pharmacology? Adrenaline is a hormone released during the “fight or flight response” that increases heart rate, blood pressure, and lung capacity Adrenaline binds to Beta 1 G - protein coupled receptors in the heart and blood vessels Adrenaline Beta 1 G - protein coupled receptor Course Objectives • Identify what drugs are and where they come from • Relate the interaction of a drug with its target to its therapeutic and toxic effect • Describe how a drug enters and exits the body to cause therapeutic and/or toxic effects • Describe critical steps and challenges in developing safe and effective medicines • Apply experimental and analytical methods to investigate drug responses • Compare the safety, efficacy, and cost - effectiveness of medicines PHAL241 Staff • Course coordinator – Teaching Fellow Jonathan Falconer – Jonathan.falconer@otago.ac.nz – Room 303b 3rd Floor Adams Building (Office hours 12 - 1:45 pm Wednesdays) – Supervisor of laboratory sessions • Lab manager – Ben Reshey PHAL241 Staff • Lecturers – Associate Professor Lyn Wise, lyn.wise@otago.ac.nz – Professor Michelle Glass, michelle.glass@otago.ac.nz – Professor John Ashton, john.ashton@otago.ac.nz – Professor Joel Tyndall, Guest Lecturer, joel.tyndall@otago.ac.nz • Lab demonstrators – Josh William Russell Haywood – Elena Mochtar – Ellie Withers – Asher Yang – Chloe Wood – Kate Briscoe – Hannah Cavanagh Course organization https ://aoroa.otago.ac. nz • Take advantage of the discussion board for questions Course organization https ://aoroa.otago.ac. nz • Take advantage of the discussion board for questions Practicals • Held in Adams 304 – Meet before the lab in Adams 308 for the introduction • P racticals : – Practical 1 (5 %) • Research skills, drugs as natural products and Rongo ā Māori – Practical 2 (0%) • Pharmacokinetics: Determine effect of liver enzymes on length of anaesthesia – Practical 3 (10 %) • Pharmacodynamics: Determine effect of acetylcholine and antagonists on tissue contraction – Practical 4 (10 %) • Drug design: Modify a drug to improve its pharmacokinetic properties – Practical 5 (5 %) • Pharmac and Medsafe review panels Kuracloud access for practicals • 2 easy steps – Click confirm invitation • Create a password – To sign in afterward use your university student email address on www.kuracloud.com • Kuracloud will be used for practicals AND review of lecture material Using Kuracloud (LT) • Labs will be broken up into separate lessons – Lab 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. Breakdown of marks • Practicals 30% • Midsemester test Thursday, April 16 th at 1 PM – Worth 10% – Will be run online IN CLASS • You can use one double sided cheat sheet for notes, but no use of multiple tabs throughout the test • Final exam – Worth 60% Marking philosophy • My goal with marking is to reward effort and motivate you to learn pharmacology material – The “test effect” has found assessed material is remembered better Animal Ethics • Some lab sessions use animal tissue. – This has been reviewed and approved by the University of Otago Animal Ethics Committee • “Use of animals is a privilege, not a right” • If any student has a conscientious objection to partaking in such work, contact me to discuss possible alternatives. Use of ChatGTP /Perplexity/Etc • These are incredibly valuable tool s that h av e profound implications in education • For PHAL241 the use of ChatGTP for editing grammar is encouraged • Using unedited ChatGTP responses for your answers is unacceptable Why shouldn’t I let ChatGTP write my assignment? 1. ChatGTP is not THAT good in technical subjects (some Universities have found ChatGTP scores a C+ to B on advanced exams) 2. You still need a solid knowledge base to know when ChatGTP is correct or incorrect 3. There are some PHAL241 assignments that are too complex for ChatGPT