I understand the kinetics and clearance and stuff, but I can’t wrap my head around how to tell what drug goes with what receptor and what it does when it gets there… What does it mean if something is described as muscarinic, nicotinic, adrenergic, or cholinergic? What is a catecholamine? Other than their physical location, is there any difference between alpha/beta/N/M receptors?
I’ve read books, looked at diagrams, watched videos, gone to lectures, and tried asking my profs but I still don’t understand and I’m going crazy because I always miss the pharm questions on my exams…
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There are a group of closely related proteins that were discovered because they can be activated by the toxin muscarine. Similarly there are a group of proteins that were discovered because they are activated by the toxin nicotine. They were therefore named after the activating compound. That is the convention for most receptors. They are classified by the chemical that was used to discover them. In actuality both of these receptor families are activated by acetylcholine, which is the definition of a cholinergic receptor.
Similarly if a receptor is activated by a catecholamine like dopamine, epinephrine, or norepinephrine it is called catecholinergic.
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