The students will acquire knowledge of the classification, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and side effects of antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer drugs. Additionally, they are expected to comprehend the concept of the prudent use of antibiotic and antiviral drugs to preserve efficacy and minimize the spread of bacterial and viral resistance. Understanding the therapeutic use of the studied drugs according to updated guidelines, as well as knowledge of the most relevant predictors of efficacy, will also be required.
Course Prerequisites
Notions of General Pharmacology will help the student to understand the lectures. In particular, are necessary general concepts of pharmacokinetics, such as: - drug absorption, concentration/time slope after oral or intravenous administration, maximum plasmatic concentration, elimination half time - drug distribution, apparent volume of distribution, plasmatic distribution, extracellular distribution, intracellular distribution - drug elimination: renal excretion, hepatic metabolization, hepatic cytochromes. Basic notions of microbiology will be useful too: - Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria - DNA and RNA viruses
Teaching Methods
Traditional teacher up-front classes and exercise sessions will be held. Examples of the exam tests will be showed and discussed with the students.
Assessment Methods
Multiple choice test. Students will be given 30 minutes to answer to 25 multichoice questions. The questions are strictly taken from the slides showed during the lessons.
Texts
- Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics - Rang's Pharmacology - Katzung's Basic & Clinical Pharmacology
Contents
Part I and II: Antibacterial drugs - International guidelines for the therapy of meningitis, pneumonia, endocarditis and Group B streptococci faringitis. - Betalactams (penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems, monobactams) - aminoglycosides - macrolides - vancomycin - linezolid - daptomycin Part III: antiviral drugs - International guidelines for the treatment of viral influenza - International guidelines for the treatment of Hepatitis C - antiherpes (aciclovir) - antiflu (amantadin, rimantatin, oseltamivir, zanamifir) - anti HBV, anti HCV
