Nociception and endogenous painkillers

A while back, lecturing about pain perception and enkephalin’s role as an endogenous pain killer, I remember bringing up the example of a bike rider who gets hit by a speeding car but doesn’t feel the pain until later on…I didn’t remember the exact term of this phenomenon back then and just stumbled upon an …

Claude Bernard's work on curare

Interesting fact I came across while reading about Claude Bernard’s work on curare: Bernard was wrong in his interpretation of experimental facts, he should not be credited for the discovery of curare’s mode of action! The Lebanese Biology book for LS states that Bernard performed an experiment on a frog injected with curare, which he …

Agonist and Antagonist

Drugs that bind to specific receptors and produce a drug action are called agonists. Morphine is an example of an agonist. Drugs that bind to specific receptors and inhibit agonist drug action or cellular functions are called antagonists. Antagonists are also known as blocking drugs. Usually, antagonists bind to the receptors and prevent other drugs …