An Illustrated Companion to Pharmacology

Readership
This book is aimed at anyone who has an interest in pharmacology but particularly undergraduates who need an information source to pull together all their university or college studies or who need a quick reminder of things they may have forgotten.
This book was written out of frustration. There were not enough pharmacology dictionaries and most textbooks tended be clinically orientated. Clinical pharmacology was, however, only a small part of what I wanted to know. Who would tell me why Basenji dogs are used in research into asthma? Who could explain the mechanism by which spreptozotocin induces diabetes in animals? How could I find out where Zucker rats originated and why they are fat? Where would I find out about receptor nomenclature? Who was Julius Axelrod? Why is cecal ligation and puncture a useful model for peritonitis? What is (or what are) PPAR?
   While working in the publishing industry I became fed up with the limited resources available to me. Most textbooks could tell me what, but few said why, how and where I should go for more information. Well, this is a what, why, how and where-to-go-from-here book of pharmacology. It is not intended to provide comprehensive clinical drug information. There are plenty of books and web resources which do that.

Scope of this book
Pharmacology has for a long time been a broad-ranging science involving not only 'classical' pharmacology but molecular biology, pharmaceutics, biotechnology, toxicology, medicinal chemistry and statistics amongst other disciplines and more recently proteomics, genomics, glycomics and bioinformatics. It is also important in other sciences such as forensic science, physiology, medicine, nursing, densistry, veterinary science and chemistry. All these disciplines contribute to our current understanding of pharmacology and pharmacology contributes to our understanding of them.
   I have used many resources to put this companion together and some of these are listed below. I have simply assimilated information from these and other sources and have not willfully plagiarized information from them. You will no doubt find many similarities between the entries in this book and those in other books and websites you may have used.

Conventions used
Entries are listed alphabetically and present alternative spellings where appropriate. (This book uses British English spelling so most of the alternatives are American English spelling). Bold type in an entry denotes a separate alphabetic entry for that word or words which the reader should consult to obtain a better picture of the particular entry. Italics after an entry refer you on to the entry where you will find the information you want. Following many entries there is a reference in blue. This may not be the best or most up to date reference for that topic but it is a good starting point for further reading. If the link takes you to a website, then the website will also be a good place to start further research but may not be the best of most up to date.

A note about chemistry - The text contains chemical structures and pathways where appropriate which illustrate in greater detail the actual chemical structures and processes involved in pharmacology. I have assumed that most readers, like me, only have a simple knowledge of organic chemistry. All compounds have been named and drawn according to the entries in The Merck Index (12th Edition or later) or a similar reputable source.
   If you are wondering what the chemical bond shapes mean, here's a reminder which should be useful when considering enantiomers.

The Merck Index uses CAS* nomenclature (which may differ slightly from IUPAC** naming). This, hopefully, will make it easier for you to make a more detailed search on a compound using CAS on-line or STN for example as the CAS index is the most comprehensive chemical database available worldwide. In some cases, the structures in Merck will differ from those you might see in a pharmacology or chemistry textbook.

*CAS - Chemical Abstracts Service is a part of the American Chemical Society. CAS maintain an extremely comprehensive database of all chemical compounds (now totalling over 18 million). They assign a unique identifying number to each compound (the CAS registry number) and make the contents of this database available for use for a fee (www.cas.org).
**IUPAC is the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists which is responsible for developing the system of chemical nomenclature most widely used today. They have a comprehensive website at www.iupac.org/dhtml_home.html where they provide guidelines for the naming of organic molecules including sugars, amino acids and steroids.

Reference material
Throughout the text of this source book you will find references to books, research papers and/or manuscripts and links to websites. These have been selected because they provide detailed explanations of the topic covered and are a good place to start with extra reading before you dive into the murky waters of the wider Internet, Medline, Excerpta Medica or a library to investigate the topic further. Where there is no reference, then either I couldn't find an appropriate article, haven't got round to looking for one or you will find the information you need in any good pharmacology textbook.
   All reference material is in English unless otherwise stated. Information on the clinical use of the drugs referred to is for humans unless otherwise noted and usually describes the use of the drug in the UK according to the British National Formulary. The references in this book should be available in any good university or science library or in any national library. A lot of the material researched for this book was found on the shelves of the British Library in London. National libraries include:

The British Library, London
blpc.bl.uk

United States National Library of Medicine, Washington DC
www.nlm.nih.gov

The National Library of Australia
www.nla.gov.au

German National Library
www.ddb.de/index_txt_e.htm

A list of national libraries with web links can be found here.

Textbooks referred to throughout this book and which readers will most probably find useful for further reading are shown below. Always use the latest edition of each textbook.

General references
- Handbook of Pharmacology. Springer Verlag. Over 150 volumes of probably the most detailed experimental pharmacology available.
- Rang, Dale, Ritter and Flower - Rang and Dale's Pharmacology. Sixth edition. Churchill Livingstone 2007. Popular pharmacology text particularly among medical students.
- Dictionary of Toxicology - Dictionary of Toxicology. E Hodgson, RB Mailman and JE Chambers (Eds). Macmillan Reference. Second Edition 1998.
- Principles of Medicinal Chemistry - Principles of Medicinal Chemistry, WO Foye, TL Lemke, DA Williams. 4th Edition. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
- Bennett and Brown - Clinical Pharmacology by PN Bennett and MJ Brown. Churchill Livingstone. March 2003. Popular clinical pharmacology text.
- Goodman and Gilman; The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics B The McGraw-Hill Companies. 10th edition. 2001. Eds. Joel G Hardman and Lee E Limbird. Probably the most comprehensive single-volume pharmacology text available.
- British National Formulary. Pharmaceutical Press/BMJ Books. Published quarterly. Essential prescribing information in the UK.
- The Veterinary Formulary. The Pharmaceutical Press. 2nd Edition or later. Edited by Y. Debuf. Useful reference for veterinary pharmacology.
- Lawrence and Carpenter; A Dictionary of Pharmacology and Allied Topics - Second Edition. DR Laurence (Editor). Elsevier. (1998)
- Rowland and Tozer; Clinical Pharmacokinetics B Concepts and Applications. Williams and Wilkins (1995).
- Remmington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy. 20th Edition. 2000. Gennaro AR (Ed). Very comprehensive text book on pharmacy and pharmaceutics.
- Encyclopedic Reference of Molecular Pharmacology. Offermann S and Rosenthal W (Eds) Springer Verlag.
- Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery. Wolff ME (Ed). John Wiley & Sons. Fifth edition or later. Superb 5-volume reference for drug design and synthesis.
- Lewis' Dictionary of Toxicology. Lewis RA. Lewis Publishers.
- Pharmacology. The National Veterinary Medical Series. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. 1996. Good veterinary pharmacology text.
- Concise Dictionary of Pharmacological Agents, Properties and Synonyms. Morton IKM and Hall JM. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Additional reading
* Landmarks in Pharmacology - A selection of papers published in the British Journal of Pharmacology since its foundation in 1946. Supplement to Volume 120(4) 1997. Superb collection of 35 classic pharmacology papers.
* Dictionary of Pharmacology B W Bowman et al. Blackwell Scientific Publications. (1986)
* Concise Encyclopedia - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. TA Scott and EI Mercer (Eds). W de Gruyter. (1997)
* The Merck Index, 12th Edition or later, Merck & Co. Inc.
* Medicinal Chemistry - Principles and Practice. FD King (Ed). The Royal Society of Chemistry Press. (1994)
* Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology - www.annualreview.org

Internet resources (just a brief list)

Societies and Organizations

ASPET - The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapuetics
www.aspet.org

IUPAC - The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
www.iupac.org/dhtml_home.html

IUPHAR - International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology
www.iuphar.org

The Use and Abuse of Drugs

RX List (US-based prescribing info for over 1300 drugs)
www.rxlist.com

Drugs.com (more info on prescribed drugs)
www.drugs.com

Prescribing and pricing info for the UK in the British National Formulary
www.bnf.org

Erowid - information about psychoactive drugs
www.erowid.org

General Pharmacology Sites

Pharmacology resources on the Internet
cim.usuhs.mil/pha/inet.html

A website for brain disorders and neurotransmitters
www.neurotransmitter.net/index.html

Cytokines on-line pathfinder encyclopaedia
www.copewithcytokines.de

Adrenoceptors
www.adrenoceptor.com

Pathophysiology of the endocrine system
arbl.cvmbs.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/index.html

Psychotropic drugs
www.psychotropics.dk/default.asp

Quantitative structure activity relationships and modeling
www.qsar.org/index.htm

Ion channels
www.neuro.wustl.edu/neuromuscular/mother/chan.html

Some animals models described by Taconic
www.taconic.com/anmodels/animlmod.htm

Medical Pharmacology and Disease‑Based Integrated Instruction - a good clinical pharmacology reference site from the University of Kansas Medical Centre
www.kumc.edu/instruction/alliedHealth/NurseAnesthesia/Medical_Pharmacology

Medical Biochemistry website from Indiana State University
http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/

IUPHAR receptor database
http://www.iuphar-db.org/index_ic.jsp

NOAH - animal health website
www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Compendium/Overview/-21789.html

Journals and Reviews

The British Journal of Pharmacology
www.nature.com/bjp/index.html

Entrez-PubMed (journal references, lots of them!)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed

JPET - The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
jpet.aspetjournals.org

Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405920/description#description

pA2 Online - the e-journal from the British Journal of Pharmacology - has some good articles of general pharmacology
www.pa2online.org

IUPHAR reviews
www.iuphar.org/pubs.html

ASPET journals
www.aspetjournals.org

Glossaries, Dictionaries and Databases

A glossary or organic chemistry terms from IUPAC
www.iupac.org/publications/compendium/A.html

A glossary of statistical terms
www.statsoft.com/textbook/glosfra.html

Good definitions of lots of things not just pharmacology from Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Definitions of some pharmacology terms from Boston University School of Medicine
www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content.aspx?DepartmentID=65&PageID=7797

On-line medical dictionary B one of many good medical dictionaries
www.online-medical-dictionary.org/link.asp

IUPHAR receptor database
iuphar-db.org/iuphar-rd/index.html

Another medical dictionary
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mplusdictionary.html

IUPAC glossary of medicinal chemistry
www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/medchem

Terms used in combinatorial chemistry
www.iupac.org/reports/1999/7112maclean

People in Pharmacology

Profiles in Science B a collection of the works of some well-known scientists
profiles.nlm.nih.gov

The Nobel Foundation
nobelprize.org

Chemicals and Drugs Suppliers

Tocris (pharmacological reagent supplier; they also have many good free publications at their website in PDF form here)
www.tocris.com

Sigma-Aldrich (chemical and reagent suppliers)
www.sigma-aldrich.com

Biochemicals and research tools from Cayman
www.caymanchem.com/app/template/Home.vm

Drug discovery tools from Maybridge
www.maybridge.com

Radiochemicals and diagnostics from Amersham
www.amersham.com

New England Nuclear site for radiochemicals at Perkin Elmer
las.perkinelmer.com/About+Us/PKI+Heritage/NEN.htm

Other sites of Interest

IUPAC chemical nomenclature
www.acdlabs.com/iupac/nomenclature

The Food and Drug Administration's Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research for information on drugs available in the US
www.fda.gov/cder

NICE - The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK
www.nice.org.uk

A website of medical and pharmacological mnemonics
www.medicalmnemonics.com/cgi‑bin/browse.cfm

e-tocs
electronic table of contents which are sent by e-mail to subscribers each time the journal is published to alert subscribers of the contents. As the name suggests, these are a table of contents linked to the abstract and full article via the Internet. Subscriptions to the journal are usually required to gain access to the full article but abstracts are available free of charge. e-tocs is a good way to keep up with recent changes in pharmacology and is especially useful if you don't have regular access to a library. At the time of writing many journals offer e-tocs. You can check out their websites for more details:

* British Journal of Pharmacology
www.brjpharmacol.org

* Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
pubs.acs.org/journals/jmcmar

* Molecular Pharmacology
molpharm.aspetjournals.org

* Pharmacological Reviews
pharmrev.aspetjournals.org

* Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
www.trends.com/tips/default.htm

* Current Opinion in Pharmacology
www.current-opinion.com/jphr/about.htm

* Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
www.pnas.org/subscriptions/aboutcca.shtml

* The New England Journal of Medicine

Feedback
It is almost a certainty (if a certainty can be almost) that there are some errors and/or omissions in this book although I have done my best to reduce errors to an absolute minimum by double checking every entry with independent sources. If you find an error or omission (or both), please contact me with details of the problem via e-mail and I will ensure that the matter is sorted out as soon as possible.
   This is a work in progress and I hope to get all the pages I have written up on the web sometime before the next ice age. This book is really a hobby.

About The Kanji Foundry Press
Well, it's related to The Kanji Foundry. It really is an offshoot of the work I've done for them over about the past 10 or so years. I originally intended this to be a series of notes that I could use give me the information I needed on the mechanisms of action of drugs and animal models in a nutshell to help me in patent translation. Then I decided to put all the information I had gathered onto the web giving me a chance to learn about website construction (which I still haven't mastered) and reminding me of the easily forgettable bits of pharmacology.

Copyright
The copyright to this book belongs to The Kanji Foundry Press. Having said that, is intended for students of pharmacology and so I encourage them to use it as much as they need to while respecting the copyright. Contributions are welcomed and the authors will be acknowledged.

© The Kanji Foundry Press 2003-2009.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, even by means not yet invented (even if some new method emerges from that black hole experiment at CERN) without the prior permission of The Kanji Foundry Press.

Note
Please note that this book has nothing to do with the superb Illustrated Companion series of books from Oxford University Press (www.oup.co.uk).

Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the following people (in no particular order) for their help and contributions in the production of this book:

Neil Bell
Dr John Earl
Professor Jim Ford
Dr Letitia Perry
Girvan Burnside

Correspondence

You can contact The Kanji Foundry Press by sending e-mail to info@thekanjifoundrypress.com