Basic principles of pharmacology.
Agonists and antagonists. Inverse agonists and partial agonists. Ligand “biased” drugs. Affinity and intrinsic efficacy of drugs. Dose-response curves. Median effective dose (ED50). Analysis of dose-response curves.
Pharmacokinetics: drug absorption, drug distribution, drug biotransformation and drug elimination (ADME). Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. Drug allergy and drug resistance.
Molecular basis of pharmacological selectivity.
Definition and classification of receptors. Receptor analysis and identification. Receptor binding studies: saturation curves, displacement curves. Scatchard plot, Hill plot, Lineweaver-Burke plot. Receptors theories. Spare receptors. Down-regulation and desensitization of receptors.

Molecular basis of drug action. Receptor specificity and signal transduction. Ionotropic receptors: GABAA and GABAC receptors, glycine receptor, Acetylcholine receptor, excitatory aminoacid receptors: NMDA, AMPA and Kainate. Metabotropic receptors: catecholamine and dopamine receptors. Muscarinic receptors, glutamate receptors, GABAB receptor. Voltage-dependent ionic channels: Na+ channels, K+ channels, Ca2+ channels. Growth factor receptors. Insulin receptor. Cytokine receptors. Nuclear receptors. Immunomodulator and biologic drugs. Nitric oxide. Arachidonic acid cascade. Apoptosis and cellular necrosis.