title: Convergence and divergence, a concept for explaining drug actions.
abstract: For the teaching and/or learning about drug actions and for the discovery and development of new drugs, it is important to understand how drugs act on living bodies. So far, there has been no clear description on the general principle of drug action in pharmacology textbooks. We propose two principles to depict the action mechanism of drugs. The first is that most, if not all, drugs act on proteins at the molecular level, that is, enzymes, receptors, ion channels, and transporters. The second is that a drug may cause divergent or convergent responses, resulting in changes of a physiological or pathological function of the human body. The concept of divergence and convergence can be used to explain the complex individuality of drug actions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-cho, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan.
authors.forename: Takehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kamisaki
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Timmerman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations