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4. Pharmacological Descriptors of Drug-Receptor Interactions

Pharmacological Descriptors of Drug-Receptor Interactions are used to describe and compare potency of drugs

  • KD [equilibrium dissociation constant]: indicates drug concentration at which 50% of the receptors are occupied by the drug

    FYI: This is constant for a given drug-receptor system

  • Bmax [maximal specific binding]: represents the total number of receptors present in a cell or tissue

    Reminder: a drug does not have to bind all available receptors in order to achieve the maximal effect (see spare receptors)

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Principles of Pharmacology - Study Guide Copyright © by Edited by Dr. Esam El-Fakahany and Becky Merkey, MEd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.