Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

Poisoning is an adverse effect from a chemical that has been taken in excessive amounts. The body is able to tolerate and, in some cases, detoxify a certain dose of a chemical; however, once a critical threshold is exceeded, toxicity results. Poisoning can produce minor local effects that can be treated readily in the outpatient setting or systemic life-threatening effects that require intensive medical intervention. This spectrum of toxicity is typical for many chemicals with which humans come in contact.

Computational toxicology is a branch of toxicology concerned with the development and use of computer-based models to understand and predict the interactions of biological organisms (at population, individual, cellular, and molecular levels) with pollutants in the air, water, soil and food, and their adverse health effects that they may cause.

In essence, toxicology is the science of poisons, toxicants, or toxins. Toxin is a substance capable of causing harm when administered to an organism. Harm can be defined as seriously injuring or, ultimately, causing the death of an organism. This is a rather simplistic definition, because virtually every known chemical or substance has the potential for causing harm. The term toxin usually refers to a poison derived from a protein or conjugated protein produced by some higher plant, animal, or pathogenic bacteria that is highly poisonous for other living organisms.

Toxicogenomics is a sub discipline of pharmacology that deals with the collection, interpretation, and storage of information about gene and protein activity within a particular cell or tissue of an organism in response to exposure to toxic substances. Toxicogenomics is defined as the application of genomic technologies (for example, genetics, genome sequence analysis, gene expression profiling, proteomics, metabolomics, and related approaches) to study the adverse effects of environmental and pharmaceutical chemicals on human health and the environment. Toxicogenomics may lead to information that is more discriminating, predictive, and sensitive than that currently used to evaluate toxic exposure or predict effects on human health.

Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and other section like analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to assist the medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use.

Enzyme inhibitors are substances which bind to the enzyme with resulting loss of activity, without damaging the enzyme's protein structure. Enzyme inhibitors are used as tools for studying enzymes and as drugs for treating certain disorders. Enzyme inhibitors are classified as reversible or irreversible.

Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical technique used to quantify known materials, to identify unknown compounds within a sample, and to elucidate the structure and chemical properties of different molecules. The complete process involves the conversion of the sample into gaseous ions, with or without fragmentation, which are then characterized by their mass to charge ratios (m/z) and relative abundances.

Analytic toxicology involves the application of the tools of analytic chemistry to the qualitative and or quantitative estimation of chemicals that may exert adverse effects on living organisms.

Clinical pharmacology is a branch of biomedical science. It includes drug discovery, the study of the effects of drugs on their targets in living systems and their clinical use, as well as the study of  biological function related to these chemicals. Clinical pharmacology also connects the gap between medical practice and laboratory science. 

Pharmacogenetics is concerned with the studies of inherited genetic differences in drug metabolic pathways which can affect individual responses to drugs, both in terms of therapeutic effect as well as adverse effects. The term pharmacogenetics is often used interchangeably with the term pharmacogenomics which also investigates the role of acquired and inherited genetic differences in relation to drug response and drug behaviour through a systematic examination of genes, gene products, and inter- and intra-individual variation in gene expression and function.

Molecular Pharmacology deals with the studies of pharmacology with regards to the molecular basis of pharmacology. Molecular pharmacology studies the molecular study of pharmaceuticals and natural compounds used in the treatment of disease. Further molecular pharmacology also focuses on diseases on a molecular basis with the goal of developing pharmacologically active agents which could be used to address diseases. 

Immunopharmacology deals with the studies of pharmacology and immunology combined together. The field is now diverse and interspersed with other related sub-disciplines, its two parent disciplines remain immunology and pharmacology. It focuses on drugs acting on the immune system and the pharmacological actions of substances derived from the immune system.

The content emphasizes the biophysical, biochemical, and cellular basis for drug therapy. My desire in publishing this web site is to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of not only general pharmacologic principles and mechanisms of action of cardiovascular drugs, but more importantly, with an understanding of the rationale for drug use.

Neuropharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on the nervous system, with the goal of developing compounds that offer therapeutic benefit in humans with psychiatric and neurological disease. We believe that an understanding of a drug’s action requires an integrated knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the drug exerts its effects upon brain circuitry and ultimately human behaviour.

It is that branch of pharmacology which deals with the effect of drugs on living system. It can be studied under Preclinical Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology. Experimental pharmacology is based on the null technique since the biochemical reactions that transform receptor activation to cellular response are largely unknown.

Applied Pharmacology provides the essential details that are required for a solid understanding of pharmacology: how the drugs work, why side effects occur, and how the drugs are used clinically. 

The tremendous pharmacological advances witnessed during the last few decades have revolutionize virtually all aspects of modern life, including our understanding of disease. New drugs have contributed significantly to the economic impact of new developments in health care. With recognition that the pace of pharmacological development and acquiring of new knowledge will certainly accelerate in the coming years, let us consider what these advances might hold for Pharmacological advancement, Pharmacology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of drug action, where a drug can be broadly defined as any natural, or endogenous (from within body) molecule which exerts a biochemical and physiological effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or organism.

Pediatrics pharmacology is the branch of medicine dealing with the health and medical care of infants, children, and adolescents from birth up to the age of 18.

Drug safety is the pharmacological science relating to the collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products.

Toxicology and Risk Assessment gives details of a product’s consistency with measures such as health and security and market acknowledgment all over the parts of the product in areas of manufacturing and distributing. Toxicological assessments helps in determining if the product poses a potential risk for the toxicological ranges measured. Hence the Toxicology studies are most essential in Product management and Product testing.

Environmental Toxicology is a detailed study of the eventual effects of chemicals on the earth that mostly include hazardous chemicals normally found in the earth. Environmental toxicology is usually linked to the study and examination of chemicals that affect the earth and environment starting from the point of regular Human use. Environmental Health Toxicology and Ecotoxicology are the major subclasses in this study, which mainly provides a better understanding over the processes which play a major role in the process of degradation by the means of Biotic and Abiotic sources. Hence this study is considered a major unit in the topic of Toxicology.