| CODE | CPH3901 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Pharmacotoxicology, Toxicogenomics, Drugs of Abuse | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 6 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will cover basic mechanisms of drug toxicity from a molecular, cellular and pathological viewpoint. Toxicity due to drugs can originate due to accidental or intentional overdose, and also during normal medical use, as well as due to the interaction of drugs with other drugs, food or environment. The study-unit will cover these topics while focusing on important drugs and drug classes, including also drugs of abuse. It will also integrate this information with genetic and physiological factors that may further predispose to drug toxicity, as well as approaches to manage pharmacotoxicological events in patients. Furthermore, the study-unit will describe new methods to predict the toxicity of new compounds using pre-clinical toxicogenomic studies. Study-unit Aims: - Provide an overview of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of drug toxicity; - Present a summary of events which may increase the risks of drug toxicity, including physiological, behavioural and environmental factors, as well as drug abuse; - Review the mechanisms leading to toxicity; - Explain how drug toxicity events may be managed; - Provide information on how genetic polymorphisms may predispose individuals to adverse drug reactions; - Describe the approaches and roles of toxicogenomics. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Describe common pharmacotoxicological pathways; - Discuss different types of drug toxicity, and their causes; - Discuss approaches to minimize drug toxicity events, and to manage them if they occur; - Review in detail the principles of toxicogenomics, and its role in predictive toxicity. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Use appropriate drug toxicity resources; - Propose suitable antidotes for specific drug toxicity events; - Propose a suitable predictive toxicogenomic activity for pre-clinical drug development; - Promote approaches to minimize drug toxicity. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main text: - Raj GM and Raveendran R (Eds) Introduction to Basics of Pharmacology and Toxicology. 2019. Springer. - Olson K, Anderson I, Benowitz N, Blanc P, Clark R, Kearney T, Kim-Katz S, Wu A. Poisoning and Drug Overdose. 7th Ed. 2017. McGraw-Hill Education. Supplementary readings: - In Silico Methods for Predicting Drug Toxicity (Methods in Molecular Biology (1425)) 1st Ed. 2016. Humana Press. - Moffat AC, Osselton MD, Widdop B. Clarke's Analysis of Drugs and Poisons. 4th Ed. 2011. Pharmaceutical Press. Journals: - 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 | Jeffrey Bonnici Sophie Briffa Ingrid Busuttil Robert Chircop Roger Ellul Micallef Melissa Marie Formosa Janet Mifsud (Co-ord.) Joanna Vella Mark Zammit |
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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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