Description

A drug is a foreign molecule that affects biological processes and is used to prevent, diagnose
or treat a disease (Thomford et al., 2018). Drugs can be of natural origin or produced
synthetically. The ideal drug should have a specific action, be safe, non-toxic, without side
effects or as few as possible, be chemically and metabolically stable, be synthetically
feasible, be soluble in water in therapeutic concentrations in order to avoid precipitation in
the blood stream, be soluble in lipids as well, in order to be able to cross the lipid membranes
and distribute around the body, and finally, be a unique molecule (Doytchinova 2022).
In order to exert their effects, drugs interact with specific targets in the human body. As a
result of these interactions, two types of effects are produced: effects of the drug on the
human body, and effects of the human body on the drug. These effects are considered by
Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics, respectively (Mohapatra et al., 2024). Academic
Press. Pharmacodynamics focuses on the mechanisms of drug action, the relationships
between drug concentration and effect, and the adverse reactions. Pharmacokinetics studies
the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of the drug over time, the so-called
ADME processes or ADME properties of drugs (Maranchick et al., 2024).