Bibliography of CPT Important Terms, List of Common Abbreviations
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Absorption
Adherence
Adverse drug event
Adverse drug reaction
Affinity
Agonist
Allele
Allosteric modulator
Antagonist
Apparent volume of distribution (Vd)
AUC
Bioavailability (F)
Biological marker (biomarker)
Biotransformation
Cheng-Prusoff equation
Competitive antagonist
Concentration-time curve
De-sensitization
Dose-response relationships
Drug concentration
Drug transport
Efficacy
Enteral drug administration
Equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd)
First-pass effect
Full agonist
IC50
Informed consent document
Inhibitory constant (Kj)
Inverse agonist
Irreversible antagonist
Metabolic drug tolerance
Metabolism
Metabolite
Michaelis constant (Km)
Parent compound
Parenteral drug administration
Partial agonist
Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacogenetics
Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacokinetics (PK)
Pharmacology
Potency
Prodrug
Receptor pharmacology
Reversible antagonist
Tachyphylaxis
Therapeutic index
Therapeutics
Tolerance
The process by which a drug moves from its site of administration to the systemic blood circulation. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Adherence describes the degree of a patient’s participation and engagement in maintaining a treatment regimen that he/she believes will be beneficial. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An Adverse Drug Event (ADE) is defined as “an injury resulting from medical intervention related to a drug, which includes errors in administration (Bates et. al. (1995) JAMA 274; 29-34). Read more [link opens in new window]...
An Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) has been defined by the World Health Organization as “A response to a drug that is noxious and unintended and occurs at doses normally used in man for the prophylaxis, diagnosis or therapy of disease, or for modification of physiological function” Read more [link opens in new window]...
The extent to which a ligand binds to a receptor, and it is dictated by the ability of the ligand to form an agonist-receptor complex. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A ligand that binds to a receptor and triggers a biological response. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An Allele (from the Greek állos, "other”) is one or more forms of the same gene at the same place on the chromosome. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A ligand that binds to allosteric site of the receptor and induces conformational changes that alter the efficacy and/or affinity of the agonists bound to the orthosteric site of the receptor. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A ligand that binds to the receptor but does not elicit any biological response and prevents the biological response elicited by an agonist. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A pharmacokinetic parameter that describes the apparent volume into which a drug distributes. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Area under the plasma concentration versus time curve. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The fraction of administered drug that enters the systemic blood circulation unchanged. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A biomarker is a defined medical indicator that can be measured accurately and reproducibly, and serves to define normal biological processes, pathogenic responses to exposure or results of intervention. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The chemical transformation of a drug to another chemical (often referred to as drug metabolite) in a biological system. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The Cheng-Prusoff equation defines the theoretical relationship between the IC50 and Ki of an inhibitory ligand. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An antagonist that prevents the biological response of the agonist by competing with the agonist for the same binding site of the receptor. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Graphical representation of a concentration, or dose, of given drug in the systemic circulation (plasma) during certain period of time. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A process that results in a cell or tissue being less responsive to further stimulation after a cell or tissue has been exposed to an agonist. Read more [link opens in new window]...
In in vivo assays, the biological response to a drug is dependent on its concentration at the receptor site. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Drug concentration is defined as the amount of drug in a given volume, such as mg/L or mol/L. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The process by which a drug enters or is removed from a cell or organelle. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A measure of the magnitude of drug response following interaction with the receptor. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A route of drug administration that involves the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. oral, buccal, rectal, sublingual or via gastrostomy). Read more [link opens in new window]...
A measure of the tendency of a larger complex to separate (dissociate) into its smaller parts. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The biotransformation of a drug before it enters the systemic circulation. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An agonist that binds to the receptor and triggers the maximal biological response regulated by the receptor. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The dose-response relationship in which the magnitude of biological response is proportional to the dose of drug, Read more [link opens in new window]...
A Haplotype is a set of DNA variations, or polymorphisms, that tend to be inherited together. Read more [link opens in new window]...
IC50 is the concentration of the competitive antagonist required to reduce the activity/binding of an agonist to a specific enzyme, receptor or transporter by 50%. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An Informed Consent Document is documentation demonstrating the communication either between a subject in a research study or their designated guardian and the study research team or between a patient or a patient’s guardian and a health care provider. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The inhibitory constant (Ki) is a type of equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) that represents the equilibrium binding affinity for a ligand that reduces the activity of its binding partner. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An agonist that binds to the receptor and reduces its constitutive activity leading to a biological response that is opposite to the response elicited by a full or partial agonist. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An antagonist that binds to the receptor in an irreversible manner. The interaction between the antagonist and the receptor is tight (mostly covalent) and therefore the antagonism is insurmountable at any concentration of the agonist. Read more [link opens in new window]...
This term describes a situation where more drug is needed to achieve the same effect due to a pharmacokinetic change associated with chronic or repeated drug use. Read more [link opens in new window]...
In pharmacology, this term refers to the process of biotransformation, usually by enzymes, where one chemical species is converted to another. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The product of a biotransformation reaction, often used to refer to the resulting chemical or chemicals produced from an administered drug or prodrug. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The Michaelis constant (Km) is a measure of the concentration at which a substrate/ligand causes 50% of its maximum activation potential (Vmax) of its binding partner at saturation. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An antagonist that prevents the biological response of an agonist without competing with the agonist on the same binding site on the receptor. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The starting compound in a biotransformation reaction. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A route of drug administration that does not involve the gastrointestinal tract. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An agonist that binds to the receptor and regardless of its concentration triggers a biological response that is less than the response triggered by a full agonist. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Refers to what an administered drug does to alter the body’s physiological functions. It refers to the actions (beneficial or harmful) of the drug. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Pharmacogenetics is defined as the influence of variation in single gene on a person’s response to drugs. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Pharmacogenomics is defined as the influence of a person’s genome on their response to drugs. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Refers to what the body does to an administered drug. It encompasses drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Broadly defined as the study of the mechanism of action of the factors that impact their effects on biological systems. It encompasses both how the body handles a drug as well as what a drug does to the body. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The amount of a certain ligand required to produce an effect of a given magnitude. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A drug that requires activation, generally by enzymatic and/or chemical biotransformation, to have its therapeutic effect. Read more [link opens in new window]...
In some cases, graded dose-response curves are not well-suited to describe the relationship between drug concentration and its biological response, particularly if the response is an “either-or” event, such as prevention of arrhythmia, convulsions, or death. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The study of the interactions of receptors with their activators, inhibitors, and other binding partners. Read more [link opens in new window]...
An antagonist that binds to the receptor in a reversible manner. The interaction between the antagonist and the receptor is not covalent and therefore the antagonism is surmountable at a certain concentration of the agonist. Read more [link opens in new window]...
A side effect is a type of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) that is defined as a secondary effect of a drug, which may have beneficial or harmful consequences. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Spare receptors are receptors that remain unbound when an agonist is producing its maximal biologic response. Read more [link opens in new window]...
When responsiveness diminishes rapidly after the administration of a drug. Read more [link opens in new window]...
The therapeutic index of a drug is the ratio of the dose that exerts toxicity in 50% of the population (TD50) to the dose that exerts a therapeutic or effective response (ED50) in 50% of the population (TI=TD50 / ED50). Read more [link opens in new window]...
Therapeutics is the use of treatment to cure or control a disorder. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Processes that result in the reduction of therapeutic effectiveness. Tolerance can occur acutely (tachyphylaxis) or over time due to physiological changes that result in drug desensitization and/or enhanced metabolism. Read more [link opens in new window]...
Wild Type is the term used to designate the predominant phenotype of a particular trait as it occurs in nature. Read more [link opens in new window]...