Be a part of International Webinar on Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics in Drug Delivery

A drug interaction is a change in the action or side effects of a drug caused by concomitant administration with a food, beverage, supplement, or another drug. There are many causes of drug interactions. For example, one drug may alter the pharmacokinetics of another. Alternatively, drug interactions may result from competition for a single receptor or signaling pathway. When two drugs are used together, their effects can be additive, synergistic, or antagonistic. There is sometimes confusion on whether drugs are synergistic or additive, since the individual effects of each drug may vary from patient to patient. A synergistic interaction may be beneficial for patients, but may also increase the risk of overdose.

Receptors are responsible for selectivity of drug action. The molecular size, shape, and electrical charge of a drug determine whether—and with what affinity—it will bind to a particular receptor among the vast array of chemically different binding sites available in a cell, tissue, or patient

Drug metabolism is the metabolic breakdown of drugs by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. More generally, xenobiotic metabolism is the set of metabolic pathways that modify the chemical structure of xenobiotics, which are compounds foreign to an organism's normal biochemistry, such as any drug or poison. These pathways are a form of biotransformation present in all major groups of organisms and are considered to be of ancient origin. These reactions often act to detoxify poisonous compounds The study of drug metabolism is called pharmacokinetics