Clinical Cuts: Pharmacodynamics - Agonist, partial agonist, antagonist

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These antagonists are actually good guys! Today's #ClinicalCuts review pharmacodynamics of agonists, partial agonists, and antagonists.

Pharmacodynamics refers to the mechanisms and effects of medications within the body. Put more simply, it’s what medications do to the body and how they do it.

In order to have an effect, many medications have to reach their target cells and bind to a receptor. Receptors are specialized proteins found inside the cell or on its membrane.

When they bind to a signal molecule called a “ligand”, they can alter their shape or activity, which ultimately results in some change in the cell’s activity or behavior. You can imagine the ligand as the key that fits into the lock, which is the receptor, causing it to open or activate.

Depending on the effect a medication has on its receptor, they are often divided into two major categories: agonists and antagonists.

An agonist is a medication that mimics the action of the signal ligand by binding to and activating a receptor.

On the other hand, an antagonist is a medication that typically binds to a receptor without activating them, but instead, decreases the receptor's ability to be activated by another agonist.

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