Introduction
Aim of the Course on Chronopharmacology
Chronotherapeutics
is
gaining increasing interest in medicine, pharmacy, drug delivery and in
the use of drugs as a pharmacological tool in animal experiments. It is
the intention of the Course to promote and encourage these developments
by reaching out to scientists and practitioners in medicine, biology,
pharmacy, molecular biology, vetenary medicine and in experimental and
clinical pharmacology.
Circadian Rhythm
A
biological rhythm is an adaptive phenomenon of both individuals and
species relating to predictable changes in environmental factors linked
to the rotation of the earth around its axis in 24 hours as well around
the sun in 365 days. Circadian rhythms are endogenously driven by
biological clocks found in single cells, flowers, animals and men and
in which "clock genes" are expressed.
Chronopharmacology
The study of
rhythmic, predictable-in-time differences in the effects and/or
pharmacokinetics of drugs both in experimental animals and in men. It
investigates the effects/side effects of drugs upon temporal changes in
biological functions or symptoms of a disease as well as drug effects
as a function of biologic timing.