Pharmacological or
biological activity is an expression describing the beneficial or adverse effects of a
drugA drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
on
living matterIn biology, an organism is any living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole...
. When the drug is a complex chemical mixture, this activity is exerted by the substance's
active ingredientAn active ingredient , is the substance in a drug or a pesticide that is pesticidal or pharmaceutically active. Terms in similar use include: active pharmaceutical ingredient and bulk active in medicine, or in pesticide formulations active substance may be used. Some medications and pesticide...
or
pharmacophoreA pharmacophore was first defined by Paul Ehrlich in 1909 as "a molecular framework that carries the essential features responsible for a drug’s biological activity"...
but can be modified by the other constituents. The main kind of biological activity is a substance's
toxicityToxicity is the degree to which a substance is able to damage an exposed organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell or an organ , such as the liver...
. Activity is generally
dosageAn effective dose in pharmacology is the amount of drug that produces a therapeutic response in 50% of the people taking it, sometimes also called ED-50...
-dependent and it is not uncommon to have effects ranging from beneficial to adverse
for one substance when going from low to high doses.
Pharmacological or
biological activity is an expression describing the beneficial or adverse effects of a
drugA drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
on
living matterIn biology, an organism is any living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole...
. When the drug is a complex chemical mixture, this activity is exerted by the substance's
active ingredientAn active ingredient , is the substance in a drug or a pesticide that is pesticidal or pharmaceutically active. Terms in similar use include: active pharmaceutical ingredient and bulk active in medicine, or in pesticide formulations active substance may be used. Some medications and pesticide...
or
pharmacophoreA pharmacophore was first defined by Paul Ehrlich in 1909 as "a molecular framework that carries the essential features responsible for a drug’s biological activity"...
but can be modified by the other constituents. The main kind of biological activity is a substance's
toxicityToxicity is the degree to which a substance is able to damage an exposed organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell or an organ , such as the liver...
. Activity is generally
dosageAn effective dose in pharmacology is the amount of drug that produces a therapeutic response in 50% of the people taking it, sometimes also called ED-50...
-dependent and it is not uncommon to have effects ranging from beneficial to adverse
for one substance when going from low to high doses. Activity depends critically on fulfillment of the
ADMEADME is an acronym in pharmacokinetics and pharmacology for absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, and describes the disposition of a pharmaceutical compound within an organism...
criteria.
Whereas a material is considered bioactive if it has interaction with or effect on any
cell tissueThe cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos...
in the
human bodyThe human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 10 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...
, pharmacological activity is usually taken to describe beneficial effects, i.e. the effects of drug candidates.
In the study of
biomineralisationBiomineralisation is the process by which living organisms produce minerals, often to harden or stiffen existing tissues. It is an extremely widespread phenomenon; all five taxonomic kingdoms contain members that are able to form minerals, and over 60 different minerals have been identified in...
, bioactivity is often meant as the formation of
calcium phosphateCalcium phosphate is the name given to a family of minerals containing calcium ions together with orthophosphates , metaphosphates or pyrophosphates and occasionally hydrogen or hydroxide ions.It is the principal form of calcium found in bovine milk...
deposits on the surface of objects placed in simulated body fluid, a
buffer solutionA buffer solution is an aqueous solution consisting of a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base or a weak base and its conjugate acid. It has the property that the pH of the solution changes very little when a small amount of acid or base is added to it. Buffer solutions are used as a means...
with ion content similar to
bloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells....
.
****Biological Activity does not only refer to drugs effects on living organisms****
See also
- Lipinski's Rule of Five
Lipinski's Rule of Five is a rule of thumb to evaluate druglikeness, or determine if a chemical compound with a certain pharmacological or biological activity has properties that would make it a likely orally active drug in humans. The rule was formulated by Christopher A...
, describing molecular properties of drugs
- QSAR, quantitative structure-affinity relationship
- Chemical property
A chemical property is any of a material's properties that becomes evident during a chemical reaction; that is, any quality that can be established only by changing a substance's chemical identity...
- Molecular property
Molecular properties include the chemical properties, physical properties, and structural properties of molecules, including drugs. Molecular properties typically do not include pharmacological or biological properties of a chemical compound.- See also :...
- Physical property
A physical property is any aspect of an object or substance that can be measured or perceived without changing its identity. Physical properties can be intensive or extensive. An intensive property does not depend on the size or amount of matter in the object, while an extensive property...
- Chemical structure
A chemical structure includes molecular geometry, electronic structure and crystal structure of a chemical compound. Molecular geometry refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms in a molecule and the chemical bonds that hold the atoms together...