Pharmacodynamics: Desensitization and tolerance

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A 73-year-old man with no significant past medical history develops a bowel perforation and subsequently undergoes surgical repair. He develops significant hypotension while under general anesthesia. Intraoperative blood loss is minimal. A large dose of epinephrine is administered, which temporarily raises the patient's blood pressure. Several subsequent doses of epinephrine are administered and cause a much weaker response. Which of the following mechanisms is likely contributing to the decreased effects of this medication?  

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Pharmacodynamics refers to the mechanisms and effects of medications within the body. Or more simply, it’s what medications do to the body and how they do it.

Alright, so in order to have an effect, most medications have to reach their target cells and bind to a receptor.

Receptors are specialized proteins both on the cell membrane and inside the cell, that can bind to a ligand.

Now, that ligand could be an agonist, which is a molecule that binds and activates a receptor.

This means the receptor changes its shape or activity, and that gives rise to a signal cascade of intracellular molecules - the second messengers, which ultimately results in some change in the cell’s function.

Okay, now if we massively expose the receptors to their agonists, we will get a huge downstream signal cascade and cellular response.

But if we continuously or persistently flood that receptor with the same agonist at the same dose, what will happen, is that the ability of the agonist to produce that response will drop.

This is actually a defense mechanism, whereby cells prevent their overstimulation by agonists.

If this happens very rapidly, like within a few minutes, it’s called desensitization or tachyphylaxis.

If this happens more gradually, like over the course of days to weeks, it’s called tolerance.

Desensitization can occur with the initial dose of a medication, while tolerance typically happens with repeated doses.

Alright, so, there are several mechanisms responsible for these phenomena. First, chronic exposure to agonists cause a decrease in the number of receptors.

The decrease in the number of the receptors could result from the reduced synthesis of new receptors, also known as downregulation.

Also, chronic exposure increases the degradation of preexisting receptors through endocytosis, also known as sequestration or internalization.

This is when the cell swallows up the receptor in vesicles pinching off from the cell membrane and sends them to the lysosome for digestion.

This phenomena can be seen in chronic opioid and other drug users where the target receptors are down regulated, so a higher dose is needed to achieve the same high.

Resumen

Desensitization and tolerance are two related but distinct concepts that describe changes in the body's response to a drug over time. Desensitization refers to a decrease in the response of a receptor to a drug, resulting in a reduced effect of the drug. This can occur due to a decrease in the number of receptors or a change in the way the receptors interact with the drug.

Tolerance refers to a decrease in the effectiveness of a drug over time, requiring the use of higher doses to achieve the same effect. Tolerance can occur due to several mechanisms, such as changes in the number or function of receptors, changes in the way drugs are metabolized, or changes in the way drugs are transported across the blood-brain barrier.

Fuentes

  1. "Katzung & Trevor's Pharmacology Examination and Board Review,12th Edition" McGraw-Hill Education / Medical (2018)
  2. "Rang and Dale's Pharmacology" Elsevier (2019)
  3. "Regulation of µ-Opioid Receptors: Desensitization, Phosphorylation, Internalization, and Tolerance" Pharmacological Reviews (2013)
  4. "Drug Hypersensitivity and Desensitizations: Mechanisms and New Approaches" International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2017)
  5. "Neurobiologic Processes in Drug Reward and Addiction" Harvard Review of Psychiatry (2004)
  6. "GPCR desensitization: Acute and prolonged phases" Cellular Signalling (2018)
  7. "Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 13th Edition" McGraw-Hill Education / Medical (2017)
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