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Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, Unit Catalogue 2008/09


PA30266 Pharmacology of infection & immunity

Credits: 12
Level: Honours
Academic Year
Assessment: EX100
Requisites:
Aims: To familiarise the students with the pathogenic mechanisms of infectious disease, the human host response to infection and the pharmacology of anti-infective agents; to describe the molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with acute and chronic inflammation, to illustrate the pathology of chronic inflammatory diseases and to introduce the pharmacology of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs; to illustrate clinical cases through problem-based learning.
Learning Outcomes:
After taking this unit, the student will demonstrate an understanding of 1) the innate, inflammatory and adaptive host defence mechanisms against infectious agents in man; 2) the key features required by micro-organisms to cause human disease and how the relevant prominence of virulence determinants contributes to the type of disease caused; 3) the role of excessive stimulation of host defence mechanisms in themselves causing human disease; 4) the pharmacology of agents targeted at the exogenous infection or endogenous host defence response, and 5) the student will be able to give a short oral presentation based on group study of appropriate clinical cases.
Skills:
Scientific and practical skills (T/F/A)
Study skills, handling information, working with others (T/F)
Oral communication skills (T/F)
Problem solving (T/F)
Content:
This course introduces the concept of how micro-organisms cause infectious disease. It outlines the general defence mechanisms of the human body against infection and the ways in which micro-organisms defeat these systems. A number of paradigms of infectious diseases will be used to illustrate the critical stages of pathogenesis, namely adhesion, replication, evasion of host defences and damage to the host. Pharmacology of anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and other anti-infective compounds. Mechanisms of acute and chronic inflammation, inflammatory diseases and their treatment. An introduction of the role of the immune system in chronic inflammation.