Ateneo - UPO

Basic and clinical pharmacology

FARMACOLOGIA GENERALE E MOLECOLARE Fumagalli & Clementi (Ed EDRA)LE BASI DELLA FARMACOLOGIA Karen L Whalen (Ed Zanichelli)FARMACOLOGIA GENERALE E CLINICA Katzung & Trevor’s (Ed Piccin)

The course is worth 5 credits with 48 hours of classroom teaching. The aim of the course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to participate inand critically analyze drug development projects, or work in research laboratories or healthcare analysis laboratories.

To achieve the expected learning outcomes, the student must have a solid grounding in molecular biology, anatomy, physiology, immunology, and general pathology.

All lessons will be held in the classroom; there will be no practical workshops, and active participation from students is encouraged where their knowledge allows.Lesson PDFs will be made available on the DIR platform.

Students with disabilities or with Specific Learning Disorders (DSA) or with Special Educational Needs (BES) can request specific services and tools dedicated to them by consulting the dedicated page on the University website: https://uniupo.it/it/servizi/servizi-studentesse-e-studenti-conditione-di-fragilli-disabilità-dsa-bes. Students with disabilities, DSA, BES, once they have contacted the University Staff, can contact the teacher in charge of the course in relation to the declination of the exam methods, regarding the teaching aspects.

Assessment is an oral exam. To pass the exam, students must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of at least the fundamental concepts and the most important related results.

General Pharmacology: Drug development: preclinical and clinical phases; Pharmacodynamics: receptors and signal transduction; the concept of agonist and antagonist, dose-response curve; Pharmacokinetics: drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Basic concepts of gender pharmacology: gender differences in pharmacokinetics and in the characteristics of certain drug classes. Biotechnological drugs: therapeutic proteins, monoclonal antibodies, basic concepts of cell and gene therapy.Clinical Pharmacology: - Diabetes drugs: insulin and oral hypoglycemic drugs - Anti-dyslipidemic drugs - Cardiovascular drugs: heart failure drugs, antihypertensives, antithrombotic drugs, and anticoagulants - Inflammatory drugs: NSAIDs and glucocorticoids - Respiratory drugs - Nervous system drugs: synapses and neurotransmitters; antidepressant drugs; Drugs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease; antipsychotic drugs; sedative-hypnotic drugs; pain therapy: opioids; substances of abuse and mechanisms of addiction. - Anticancer drugs. Where relevant, attention will be paid to gender-specific pharmacology.

The Dublin descriptors will be the terms of assessment: D1 - KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: The student will know and understand the basic concepts of general pharmacology and the pharmacotoxicological characteristics of substances of abuse and various drug classes. D2 - ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: The student will acquire the ability to use the theoretical knowledge taught in class to reason critically, demonstrating the ability to make connections between different topics and to apply the acquired knowledge in the context of clinical analyses of various drugs or toxic substances. D3 - JUDGMENT ABILITY: The student will acquire the ability to critically examine the theoretical concepts acquired and to be able to independently argue the problems arising from their practical application. D4-COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS: Students will acquire the ability to communicate their acquired knowledge using specific and appropriate vocabulary in order to communicate professionally and competently in both academic and professional settings. D5-LEARNING SKILLS: Students will acquire learning skills useful for continuous and ongoing updating on pharmacology research