| CODE | CPH2901 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Approaches to Analysis of Drugs and Metabolites | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will address the techniques and approaches used for the analysis of common drugs. It will cover the correct approaches and timings for drug sampling for diverse objectives such as pharmacokinetic studies, therapeutic drug monitoring and identification of drug abuse, and students will learn the techniques and instrumentation used for such analysis. The study-unit will also cover drug sampling and analysis methodologies used in animal models, with a focus on the pre-clinical phases of drug development. It will also provide a systematic overview of how the structure of a molecule affects its biological activity and will include examples of structure activity relationships (SARs). Study-unit Aims: The study-unit aims to enable students to critically evaluate the principles, applications and limitations of instrumental analytical techniques of drugs and their metabolites in body fluids, and in vitro molecular pharmacology experiments. The study-unit will also cover in vitro assays for biological activity, e.g. antibiotic sensitivity and IC50 testing. It will provide students with the knowledge to select and implement appropriate analytical techniques to solve a given analytical problem. It will also include a description of how SAR will be used to better understand the mechanism of action of a drug. An overview of the common strategies behind rational drug design will also be covered. This includes both the synthesis of new molecules with improved activity and / or optimisation of the pharmacological properties of a molecule. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Describe and evaluate instrumental methods for analysis of common therapeutic drugs, drugs of abuse and metabolites in various body fluids; - Discuss appropriate methods and timings of body fluid sampling techniques for drug analysis, in human patients as well as animal models; - Evaluate the concepts behind SAR which leads to new drug discoveries. - Describe with specific examples, the meaning of the term SARs, through a comparison of the structures and modes of action of drugs in the same class. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Propose the appropriate drug analysis approach to various clinical situations, e.g. therapeutic drug monitoring, drug abuse in sports and illicit street drug use; - Identify appropriate drug analysis approaches appropriate for micro-volume in vitro pharmacology research experiments; - Assess situations and propose rationale, where metabolite analysis, in addition to, or instead of parent drug analysis is required; - Explain how differences in the functional groups / structure of molecules could affect their pharmacological, physiochemical or therapeutic activity; - Outline the potential advantages of developing analogues of an existing drug molecule; - Perform rational drug design to create analogues of a given drug molecule. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main text: - Rahman H. Applications of Analytical Techniques / Methods in Drug Analysis. 2012. Lap Lambert Academic Publishing. - Harrold, MW. & Zavod, RM. (2023) Basic Concepts in Medicinal Chemistry: Structure Activity Relationships and basicconcepts in drug design (3rd ed.). American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. Supplementary readings: - Moffat AC, Osselton MD, Widdop B. Clarke's Analysis of Drugs and Poisons. 4th Ed. 2011. Pharmaceutical Press. Journals: - Molecular pharmacology. Published by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. - British Journal of Pharmacology. Published by the British Pharmacological Society. - British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Published by the British Pharmacological Society. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Melchior Cini Janet Mifsud Godwin Sammut |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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