Drug class: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Category of drugs used f BBC no to classify a drug according to certain criteria}}

{{More citations guy needed|date=February 2021}}{{about|pharmacological drug classification}}

* [[β-lactam antibioticAnalgesic]]

This type of categorisation is from a [[Pharmacology|pharmacological]] perspective and categorises them by their biological target. Drug classes that share a common molecular [[mechanism of action]] by modulatingmodulate the activity of a specific [[biological target]].<ref name="pmid17016423">{{cite journal | vauthors = Imming P, Sinning C, Meyer A | title = Drugs, their targets and the nature and number of drug targets | journal = Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery | volume = 5 | issue = 10 | pages = 821–34 | date = Oct 2006 | pmid = 17016423 | doi = 10.1038/nrd2132 | s2cid = 8872470 }}</ref> The definition of a mechanism of action also includes the type of activity at that biological target. For receptors, these activities include [[agonist]], [[receptor antagonist|antagonist]], [[inverse agonist]], or [[selective receptor modulator|modulator]]. Enzyme target mechanisms include [[enzyme activator|activator]] or [[enzyme inhibitor|inhibitor]]. Ion channel modulators include [[channel opener|opener]] or [[channel blocker|blocker]]. The following are specific examples of drug classes whose definition is based on a specific mechanism of action:

* [[5-alpha-reductase inhibitor|5-Alpha-reductase inhibitor]]

* [[Dopamine agonistCholinergic]]

* [[Dopamine antagonistDopaminergic]]

* [[AnticancerAntidiabetic]]

Some drug classes have been amalgamated from these three principles to meet practical needs. The class of [[nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs]] (NSAIDs) is one such example. Strictly speaking, and also historically, the wider class of anti-inflammatory drugs also comprises [[Corticosteroid|''steroidal'' anti-inflammatory drugs]]. These drugs were in fact the predominant anti-inflammatories during the decade leading up to the introduction of the term "nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs"." Because of the disastrous reputation that the corticosteroids had got in the 1950s, the new term, which offered to signal that an anti-inflammatory drug was not a steroid, rapidly gained currency.<ref name="Buer_2014">{{cite journal | vauthors = Buer JK | title = Origins and impact of the term 'NSAID' | journal = Inflammopharmacology | volume = 22 | issue = 5 | pages = 263–7 | date = Oct 2014 | pmid = 25064056 | doi = 10.1007/s10787-014-0211-2 | hdl = 10852/45403 | s2cid = 16777111 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> The drug class of "nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs" (NSAIDs) is thus composed by one element ("anti-inflammatory") that designates the mechanism of action, and one element ("nonsteroidal") that separates it from other drugs with that same mechanism of action. Similarly, one might argue that the class of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) is composed by one element ("disease-modifying") that albeit vaguely designates a mechanism of action, and one element ("anti-rheumatic drug") that indicates its therapeutic use.