A pharmaceutical company is developing 3 new drugs that bind to the same receptor as nicotine...

A pharmaceutical company is developing 3 new drugs that bind to the same receptor as nicotine and acetylcholine (ACh). They perform a series of experiments to determine the concentration-response relationship for each new drug.

All drugs showed a sigmoidal concentration-response curve when plotted on a semi-logarithmic scale.

Their data shows that Drug A has an EC₅₀ of 100 nM and a maximum effect of 99%. Drug B has an EC₅₀ of 15 nM and a maximum effect of 95%. Drug C has an EC₅₀ of 85 nM and a maximum effect of 45%.

a) What type of receptor protein do these 3 drugs bind to? (1 mark)

b) What is the timescale between binding of an agonist drug to this receptor and the cellular response? (1 mark)

c) Which drug (A, B or C) is the least potent drug? (1 mark)

d) What type of drug is Drug C? Briefly justify your answer.

Expert Solution

A) These 3 drugs bind to the nicotinic acetylcholine (Ach) ionotropic receptor. ionotropic receptors are ligand-gated ion channels that allow non-specific cations to pass through, bringing about changes in membrane current.

B) These receptors are relatively fast and bring about an effect on a millisecond timescale

C) The EC50 is the concentration of the drug that gives 'half-maximal response'. The lower the EC50, the more potent the drug. However, between these 3 drugs, it is complex because the maximal response by drug A and drug C is very different. So, even though the EC50 of drug C is only 85nM as compared to that of drug A (100nM), since the maximal response it only 45%, drug C is the least potent drug.

D) Drug C is a partial agonist. A partial agonist is a drug that binds to the receptor and gives sub-maximal response when compared to the endogenous (or full) agonist. Since drug C has a maximal response of only 45%, it is a partial agonist.

gladiator answered 2 years ago

1.A pharmaceutical company is testing their new nicotine patch. They randomly assign 100 volunteers to use...

1.A pharmaceutical company is testing their new nicotine patch. They randomly assign 100 volunteers to use the patch and finding that 37 had quit smoking after 8 weeks. Compute the 96% confidence interval. You DO need to check CLT here. 2.For # 32 .In the United States, the population mean height for 3-year-old boys is 38 inches. Suppose a random sample of 30 non-U.S. 3-year-old boys showed a sample mean of 37.2 inches with a standard deviation of 3 inches....

Gama-Smith, a pharmaceutical company, develops new drugs for COVID-19 with other pharmaceutical companies that have the...

Gama-Smith, a pharmaceutical company, develops new drugs for COVID-19 with other pharmaceutical companies that have the appropriate production facilities. When Gama-Smith acquires a stake in a development project, it makes an initial payment to the other pharmaceutical company. It then makes a series of further stage payments until the drug development is complete and it has been approved by the relevant authorities. In the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2019, Gama-Smith has treated the different stakes in...

A major pharmaceutical company is close to finishing developing a vaccine for a new virus that...

A major pharmaceutical company is close to finishing developing a vaccine for a new virus that is spreading rapidly around the world. The company expects to pay its first dividend of $5 per-share a year from now (year 1), and is projecting dividends to grow at 10% p.a. for the following four years. However, from that point (i.e.,from year five) it is expected that the need for vaccination will decline, and consequently dividends are expected to decline by 8% p.a....

As an engineer working for Thomson Pharmaceutical, you are in charge of developing a new cancer...

As an engineer working for Thomson Pharmaceutical, you are in charge of developing a new cancer drug. The new drug is to be used as a supplement to a well established, currently used drug to reduce tumor sizes in lung cancer patients. Previous studies have shown that the currently-used drug results in an average reduction in tumor mass of 38.7% after 8 weeks of use. To study the effects of the new supplement, you had 16 patients who were given...

As the scientific director of a pharmaceutical company, you are interested in developing a drug that...

As the scientific director of a pharmaceutical company, you are interested in developing a drug that would prevent the cataplectic attacks experienced by narcoleptic humans. Based on the series of scientific research articles published about narcolepsy using dogs, rodents, and humans, how should your target drug function?

Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars per year on research and development of new drugs. The...

Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars per year on research and development of new drugs. The pharmaceutical company must subject each new drug to lengthy and involved testing before receiving the necessary permission from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the drug. The FDA's policy is that the pharmaceutical company must provide substantial evidence that a new drug is safe prior to receiving FDA approval, so that the FDA can confidently certify the safety of the drug to...

Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars every year on the research and development of new drugs....

Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars every year on the research and development of new drugs. Suppose a pharmaceutical company estimates that if they invest $1 billion on the development of a new drug, they can expect to earn $500 million in accounting profit as a result (their stream of future revenue would be $500 million higher than all of their explicit costs, including the R&D costs). Just based on this information (that this company can expect to earn $500...

Giddings Pharmaceutical Company is a maker of drugs for high blood pressure and uses a process...

Giddings Pharmaceutical Company is a maker of drugs for high blood pressure and uses a process costing system. The following information pertains to the final department of Giddings's blockbuster drug called Solcax. Beginning work-in-process (40% completed) 760 Transferred-in 3,790 Normal spoilage 380 Abnormal spoilage 200 Good units transferred out 3,400 Ending work-in-process (31% completed) 570 Conversion costs in beginning inventory $2,440 Current conversion cost $6,490 Giddings calculates separate costs of spoilage by computing both normal and abnormal spoiled units. Normal...

A pharmaceutical company will spend $1,500,000 each year for 3 years to develop a new drug...

A pharmaceutical company will spend $1,500,000 each year for 3 years to develop a new drug (years 0, 1, 2). After that (starting year 3), they will earn $900,000 in profits per year for 8 years before thepatent runs out. No extra profits after the patent is gone. If future payments are discounted using a 10% interest rate (compounded annually), is this new drug a profitable venture? Should you lease or buy equipment?

A Pharmaceutical company produces three drugs: A, B, and C. It can sell up to 500...

A Pharmaceutical company produces three drugs: A, B, and C. It can sell up to 500 kg of each drug at the following prices (per kg): Drug Sales price A $10 B $15 C $25 The company can purchase the raw material at $7 per kg. Each kg of raw material can be used to produce either one kg of Drug A or one kg of Drug B. Assume cost of these operations is negligible. For a cost of $4...

Question