System Pharmacology

The course has the aim to increase the knowledge of pharmacology, explaining the mechanisms of action of drugs, and their use in the different pathological conditions. The course will explain that drugs are developed in order to therapeutically treat disease on the basis of the pathological processes present, but also as tools to be applied in the research to understand the pathological basis of diseases. Moreover, the course will present the experimental methodology used to study drugs.

At the end of the course the student has learned that drugs are developed in order to therapeutically treat disease on the basis of the pathological processes present, but also as tools to be applied in the research to understand the pathological basis of diseases.
He will be able to: i) understand the molecular mechanisms of the different classes of drugs active on the cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, gastrointestinal systems, of the pharmacological regulation of inflammatory and antineoplastic processes and to apply this knowledge in order to choose the right drug for each pathological condition on the basis of mechanisms; ii) to know and apply the correct experimental methodology in a biomedical laboratory to study drugs. The student will use the knowledge of pharmacokinetics and of the preclinical and clinical trials of drugs to use in a job in the pharmaceutical companies.