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Chemical agent

Drug, any chemical substance that affects the functioning of living things and the organisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that infect them. Pharmacology, the science of drugs, deals with all aspects of drugs in medicine, including their mechanism of action, physical and chemical properties, metabolism, therapeutics, and toxicity. This article focuses on the principles of drug action and includes an overview of the different types of drugs that are used in the treatment and prevention of human diseases. For a discussion of the nonmedical use of drugs, see drug use.

  • Prozac pills.
    Tom Varco

Until the mid-19th century the approach to drug therapeutics was entirely empirical. This thinking changed when the mechanism of drug action began to be analyzed in physiological terms and when some of the first chemical analyses of naturally occurring drugs were performed. The end of the 19th century signaled the growth of the pharmaceutical industry and the production of the first synthetic drugs. Chemical synthesis has become the most important source of therapeutic drugs. A number of therapeutic proteins, including certain antibodies, have been developed through genetic engineering.

Drugs produce harmful as well as beneficial effects, and decisions about when and how to use them therapeutically always involve the balancing of benefits and risks. Drugs approved for human use are divided into those available only with a prescription and those that can be bought freely over the counter. The availability of drugs for medical use is regulated by law.

  • A pharmacist searching for the correct medication from a list behind the counter at a pharmacy.
    © mangostock/Shutterstock.com

Drug treatment is the most frequently used type of therapeutic intervention in medicine. Its power and versatility derive from the fact that the human body relies extensively on chemical communication systems to achieve integrated function between billions of separate cells. The body is therefore highly susceptible to the calculated chemical subversion of parts of this communication network that occurs when drugs are administered.

Principles of drug action


With very few exceptions, in order for a drug to affect the function of a cell, an interaction at the molecular level must occur between the drug and some target component of the cell. In most cases the interaction consists of a loose, reversible binding of the drug molecule, although some drugs can form strong chemical bonds with their target sites, resulting in long-lasting effects. Three types of target molecules can be distinguished: (1) receptors, (2) macromolecules that have specific cellular functions, such as enzymes, transport molecules, and nucleic acids, and (3) membrane lipids.


Receptors are protein molecules that recognize and respond to the body’s own (endogenous) chemical messengers, such as hormones or neurotransmitters. Drug molecules may combine with receptors to initiate a series of physiological and biochemical changes. Receptor-mediated drug effects involve two distinct processes: binding, which is the formation of the drug-receptor complex, and receptor activation, which moderates the effect. The term affinity describes the tendency of a drug to bind to a receptor; efficacy (sometimes called intrinsic activity) describes the ability of the drug-receptor complex to produce a physiological response. Together, the affinity and the efficacy of a drug determine its potency.

Differences in efficacy determine whether a drug that binds to a receptor is classified as an agonist or as an antagonist. A drug whose efficacy and affinity are sufficient for it to be able to bind to a receptor and affect cell function is an agonist. A drug with the affinity to bind to a receptor but without the efficacy to elicit a response is an antagonist. After binding to a receptor, an antagonist can block the effect of an agonist.

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The degree of binding of a drug to a receptor can be measured directly by the use of radioactively labeled drugs or inferred indirectly from measurements of the biological effects of agonists and antagonists. Such measurements have shown that the following reaction generally obeys the law of mass action in its simplest form: drug + receptor ⇌ drug-receptor complex. Thus, there is a relationship between the concentration of a drug and the amount of drug-receptor complex formed.

The structure-activity relationship describes the connection between chemical structure and biological effect. Such a relationship explains the efficacies of various drugs and has led to the development of newer drugs with specific mechanisms of action. The contribution of the British pharmacologist Sir James Black to this field led to the development, first, of drugs that selectively block the effects of epinephrine and norepinephrine on the heart (beta blockers, or beta-adrenergic blocking agents) and, second, of drugs that block the effect of histamine on the stomach (H2-blocking agents), both of which are of major therapeutic importance.

Receptors for many hormones and neurotransmitters have been isolated and biochemically characterized. All these receptors are proteins, and most are incorporated into the cell membrane in such a way that the binding region faces the exterior of the cell. This allows the endogenous chemicals freer access to the cell. Receptors for steroid hormones (e.g., hydrocortisones and estrogens) differ in being located in the cell nucleus and therefore being accessible only to molecules that can enter the cell across the membrane.

Once the drug has bound to the receptor, certain intermediate processes must take place before the drug effect is measurable. Various mechanisms are known to be involved in the processes between receptor activation and the cellular response (also called receptor-effector coupling). Among the most important ones are the following: (1) direct control of ion channels in the cell membrane, (2) regulation of cellular activity by way of intracellular chemical signals, such as cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP), inositol phosphates, or calcium ions, and (3) regulation of gene expression.

In the first type of mechanism, the ion channel is part of the same protein complex as the receptor, and no biochemical intermediates are involved. Receptor activation briefly opens the transmembrane ion channel, and the resulting flow of ions across the membrane causes a change in the transmembrane potential of the cell that leads to the initiation or inhibition of electrical impulses. Such mechanisms are common for neurotransmitters that act very rapidly. Examples include the receptors for acetylcholine and for other fast excitatory or inhibitory transmitter substances in the nervous system, such as glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

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In the second mechanism, chemical reactions that take place within the cell trigger a series of responses. The receptor may control calcium influx through the outer cell membrane, thereby altering the concentration of free calcium ions within the cell, or it may control the catalytic activity of one or more membrane-bound enzymes. One of these enzymes is adenylate cyclase, which catalyzes the conversion of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) within the cell to cAMP, which in turn binds to and activates intracellular enzymes that catalyze the attachment of phosphate groups to other functional proteins; these may be involved in a wide variety of intracellular processes, such as muscle contraction, cell division, and membrane permeability to ions. A second receptor-controlled enzyme is phosphodiesterase, which catalyzes the cleavage of a membrane phospholipid, phosphatidylinositol, releasing the intracellular messenger inositol triphosphate. This substance in turn releases calcium from intracellular stores, thus raising the free calcium ion concentration. Regulation of the concentration of free calcium ions is important because, like cAMP, calcium ions control many cellular functions. (For more information on intracellular signaling molecules, see second messenger and kinase.)

  • In cells the stimulatory effects of epinephrine are mediated through the activation of a second …
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In the third type of mechanism, which is peculiar to steroid hormones and related drugs, the steroid binds to a receptor that consists primarily of nuclear proteins. Because this interaction occurs inside the cell, agonists for this receptor must be able to cross the cell membrane. The drug-receptor complex acts on specific regions of the genetic material deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the cell nucleus, resulting in an increased rate of synthesis for some proteins and a decreased rate for others. Steroids generally act much more slowly (hours to days) than agents that act by either of the two other mechanisms.

Many receptor-mediated events show the phenomenon of desensitization, which means that continued or repeated administration of a drug produces a progressively smaller effect. Among the complex mechanisms involved are conversion of the receptors to a refractory (unresponsive) state in the presence of an agonist, so that activation cannot occur, or the removal of receptors from the cell membrane (down-regulation) after prolonged exposure to an agonist. Desensitization is a reversible process, although it can take hours or days for receptors to recover after down-regulation. The converse process (up-regulation) occurs in some instances when receptor antagonists are administered. These adaptive responses are undoubtedly important when drugs are given over a period of time, and they may account partly for the phenomenon of tolerance (an increase in the dose needed to produce a given effect) that occurs in the therapeutic use of some drugs.

Functional macromolecules

Many drugs work not by combining with specific receptors but by binding to other proteins, particularly enzymes and transport proteins. For example, physostigmine inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which inactivates the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, thereby prolonging and enhancing its actions; allopurinol inhibits an enzyme that forms uric acid and is used therefore in treating gout. Transport proteins are important in many processes, and they may be targets for drug action. For example, some antidepressant drugs work by blocking the uptake of norepinephrine or serotonin by nerve terminals.

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Membrane lipids

Some drugs produce their effects by interaction with membrane lipids. A drug of this type is the antifungal agent amphotericin B, which binds to a specific molecule (ergosterol) found in fungal cells. This binding results in the formation of pores in the membrane and leakage of intracellular components, leading to death of the cell.

Other types of drug action

Certain drugs act without engaging in any direct interaction with the components of the cell. An example is mannitol, an inert polysaccharide that acts purely by its osmotic effect. This drug increases urine production markedly because it interferes with water reabsorption by the kidney tubule. Another example is magnesium sulfate, which works similarly in the intestine and has a cathartic effect.

Fate of drugs in the body

Dose-response relationship

The effect produced by a drug varies with the concentration that is present at its site of action and usually approaches a maximum value beyond which a further increase in concentration is no more effective. A useful measure is the median effective dose, ED50, which is defined as the dose producing a response that is 50 percent of the maximum obtainable. ED50 values provide a useful way of comparing the potencies of drugs that produce physiologically similar effects at different concentrations. Sometimes the response is measured in terms of the proportion of individuals in a sample population that show a given all-or-nothing response (e.g., loss of reaction to a painful stimulus or appearance of convulsions) rather than as a continuously graded response; as such, the ED50 represents the dose that causes 50 percent of a sample population to respond. Similar measurements can be used as a rough estimate of drug toxicity, the result being expressed as the median lethal dose (LD50), which is defined as the dose causing mortality in 50 percent of a group of animals.


Variability in response

The response to a given dose of a drug is likely to vary when it is given to different persons or to the same person on different occasions. This is a serious problem, for it can result in a normally effective dose of a drug being ineffective or toxic in other circumstances. Many factors are known to contribute to this variability; some important ones are age, genetics, absorption, disease states, drug interactions, and drug intolerance.

Adverse effects

No drug is wholly nontoxic or completely safe. Adverse effects can range from minor reactions, such as dizziness or skin reactions, to serious and even fatal effects. Adverse reactions can be divided broadly into effects that result from an exaggeration of the basic action of the drug, which can usually be controlled by reducing the dosage, and effects that are unrelated to the basic action of the drug and occur in only a small proportion of individuals, irrespective of the dose given. Effects of the latter type are known as idiosyncratic effects and include some very severe reactions, such as sudden cardiovascular collapse or irreversible suppression of blood cell production. Some reactions of this type have an allergic basis. Toxic effects of this kind, though rare, are unpredictable and sometimes highly dangerous, and they severely limit the usefulness of many effective drugs. Drugs can produce other kinds of unwanted effects, such as interference with fetal development (teratogenesis) or long-term genetic damage that may make a person susceptible to the development of cancer.

The sporadic and delayed nature of many adverse drug reactions and the fact that they may not be predictable from animal tests pose serious practical problems. Often such effects are, and indeed can only be, discovered after a drug has been used in humans for some time.

Absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination

In order to produce an effect, a drug must reach its target site in adequate concentration. This involves several processes embraced by the general term pharmacokinetics. In general, these processes are: (1) administration of the drug, (2) absorption from the site of administration into the bloodstream, (3) distribution to other parts of the body, including the target site, (4) metabolic alteration of the drug, and (5) excretion of the drug or its metabolites.

An important step in all these processes is the movement of drug molecules through cellular barriers (e.g., the intestinal wall, the walls of blood vessels, the barrier between the bloodstream and the brain, and the wall of the kidney tubule), which constitute the main restriction to the free dissemination of drug molecules throughout the body. To cross most of these barriers, the drug must be able to move through the lipid layer of the cell membrane. Drugs that are highly lipid-soluble do this readily; hence, they are rapidly absorbed from the intestine and quickly reach most tissues of the body, including the brain. They readily enter liver cells (one of the main sites of drug metabolism) and are consequently liable to be rapidly metabolized and inactivated. They can also cross the renal tubule easily and thus tend to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream rather than being excreted in the urine.

Non-lipid-soluble drugs (e.g., many neuromuscular blocking drugs) behave differently because they cannot easily enter cells. Therefore, they are not absorbed from the intestine, and they do not enter the brain. Because they may escape metabolic degradation in the liver, they are excreted unchanged in the urine. Certain of these drugs cross cell membranes, particularly in the liver and kidney, with the help of special transport systems, which can be important factors in determining the rate at which drugs are metabolized and excreted.

Drugs are given by two general methods: enteral and parenteral administration. Enteral administration involves the esophagus, stomach, and small and large intestines (i.e., the gastrointestinal tract). Methods of administration include oral, sublingual (dissolving the drug under the tongue), and rectal. Parenteral routes, which do not involve the gastrointestinal tract, include intravenous (injection into a vein), subcutaneous (injection under the skin), intramuscular (injection into a muscle), inhalation (infusion through the lungs), and percutaneous (absorption through intact skin).


After oral administration of a drug, absorption into the bloodstream occurs in the stomach and intestine, which usually takes about one to six hours. The rate of absorption depends on factors such as the presence of food in the intestine, the particle size of the drug preparation, and the acidity of intestinal contents. Intravenous administration of a drug can result in effects within a few seconds, making this a useful method for emergency treatment. Subcutaneous or intramuscular injection usually produces effects within a few minutes, depending largely on the local blood flow at the site of the injection. Inhalation of volatile or gaseous agents also produces effects in a matter of minutes and is mainly used for anesthetic agents.

  • Some anesthetics are administered via intravenous drip.
    © Lim Yong Hian/Shutterstock.com


The bloodstream carries drugs from the site of absorption to the target site and also to sites of metabolism or excretion, such as the liver, the kidneys, and in some cases the lungs. Many drugs are bound to plasma proteins, and in some cases more than 90 percent of the drug present in the plasma is bound in this way. This bound fraction is inert. Protein binding reduces the overall potency of a drug and provides a reservoir to maintain the level of the active drug in blood plasma. To pass from the bloodstream to the target site, drug molecules must cross the walls of blood capillaries. This occurs rapidly in most regions of the body. The capillary walls of the brain and spinal cord, however, are relatively impermeable, and in general only drugs that are highly lipid-soluble enter the brain in any appreciable concentration.


In order to alter or stop a drug’s biological activity and prepare it to be eliminated from the body, it must undergo one of many different kinds of chemical transformations. One particularly important site for these actions is the liver. Metabolic reactions in the liver are catalyzed by enzymes located on a system of intracellular membranes known as the endoplasmic reticulum. In most cases the resultant metabolites are less active than the parent drug; however, there are instances where the metabolite is as active as, or even more active than, the parent. In some cases the toxic effects of drugs are produced by metabolites rather than the parent drug.

Many different kinds of reactions are catalyzed by drug-metabolizing enzymes, including oxidation, reduction, the addition or removal of chemical groups, and the splitting of labile (chemically unstable) bonds. The product is often less lipid-soluble than the parent and is consequently excreted in the urine more rapidly. Many of the causes of variability in drug responses reflect variations in the activity of drug-metabolizing enzymes. Competition for the same drug-metabolizing enzyme is also the source of a number of drug interactions.


The main route of drug excretion is through the kidneys; however, volatile and gaseous agents are excreted by the lungs. Small quantities of drugs may pass into sweat, saliva, and breast milk, the latter being potentially important in breast-feeding mothers. Although some drugs are excreted mainly unchanged into the urine, most are metabolized first. The first stage in excretion involves passive filtration of plasma through structures in the kidneys called glomeruli, through which drug molecules pass freely. The drug thus reaches the renal tubule, where it may be actively or passively reabsorbed, or it may pass through into the urine. Many factors affect the rate of renal excretion of drugs, important ones being binding to plasma proteins (which impedes their passage through the glomerular filter) and urinary acidity (which can affect the rate of passive reabsorption of the drug by altering the state of its ionization).

Time course of drug action

The rise and fall of the concentration of a drug in the blood plasma over time determines the course of action for most drugs. If a drug is given orally, two phases can be distinguished: the absorption phase, leading to a peak in plasma concentration, and the elimination phase, which occurs as the drug is metabolized or excreted.

  • Typical course of changes in the plasma concentration of a drug over time after oral administration.
    Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

For therapeutic purposes, it is often necessary to maintain the plasma concentration within certain limits over a period of time. If the plasma half-life (t1/2)—the time it takes for the plasma concentration to fall to 50 percent of its starting value—is long, doses can be given at relatively long intervals (e.g., once per day), but if the t1/2 is short (less than about 24 hours), more frequent doses will be necessary.

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