Neuropharmacology

Neuropharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on the nervous system, aiming to develop compounds to benefit humans with psychiatric and neurological disease.

Neuropharmacology is the study of the effects of drugs on the nervous system, with the goal of developing compounds that offer therapeutic benefit in humans with psychiatric and neurological disease. We believe that an understanding of a drug’s action requires an integrated knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the drug exerts its effects upon brain circuitry and ultimately human behaviour.

Neuropharmacology can be divided into:

1. Experimental Neuropharmacology
2. Neuronal circuit research
3. Sinaptic Pharmacology
4. Cellular and molecular Neuroscience
5. Lysosomal and Sphingolipid Disorders
6. Neuroanatomy and In Vitro Neurophysiology

The first consideration of neuropharmacology is to what degree a drug is able to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Drugs that do not cross the BBB do not affect the brain, but do have interactions with the peripheral nervous system (PNS). For example, the second-generation antihistamine loratadine does not cause drowsiness (induced by CNS histamine receptors) but will still act on peripheral histamine receptors.

The mechanism of action of a drug describes how it interacts with the body to express its effects. Drugs work by interfering with the chemical transmission of neurotransmitters, which can in turn cause intracellular cascades to occur and gene expression to change. This interference is classified based on how they interact. Agonists mimic the action of a neurotransmitter by binding to receptors in the synapse. Antagonists inhibit the action of a neurotransmitter, usually by binding to postsynaptic receptors and disallowing action at that site. Reuptake inhibitors, like that of SSRIs, inhibit the reuptake of neurotransmitters by the presynaptic membrane transport proteins (SERT, DAT, etc). This increases extracellular concentration of the neurotransmitter.