CHRONOPHARMACOLOGY; PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS
Silpa Vijayan* and Dr. Silvia Navis
ABSTRACT
Biological clocks and circadian rhythm Biological rhythms are innately
determined rhythmic biological process or function. Circadian rhythms
These are particularly important in medicine. Physiological day is
about 25 hours where the clock is reset daily by the environment night
day social schedules. Daily oscillations in abundance of proteins
necessary for either drug absorption or metabolism result in circadian
pharmacokinetics; and oscillations in the physiological systems
targeted by these drugs result in circadian pharmacodynamics. These
clocks are present in most cells of the body, but organized in
hierarchical fashion. Interestingly, some aspects of physiology and
behavior are controlled directly via a ―master clock‖ in the
suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus, while others are controlled by ―slave‖ oscillators
in separate brain regions or body tissues. Recent research shows that these clocks can respond
to different cues, and thereby show different phase relationships. Therefore, full prediction of
chronopharmacology in pathological contexts will likely require a systems biology approach
considering ―chrono-interactions‖ among different clock-regulated systems.
Keywords: Chronopharmacology, suprachiasmatic nucleus, hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis, serotonergic system.
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