Pharmacology Software

Autonomic Pharmacology - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-32 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshots

A computer simulation of the effects of drugs on the
human eye to teach autonomic pharmacology

The ‘Tutorial’ section describes, using text and animated schematic graphics, the sympathetic and parasympathetic control of pupil diameter and how pupil diameter changes in response to a change in ambient light intensity.

The ‘Student Exercise’ section provides information on how to work through the investigation on a virtual patient using a ‘normal’ patient as an illustration. Thus students have the opportunity to investigate how the normal pupil will respond to a change in ambient light intensity, investigate the blink reflex and text the action of a number of pharmacological agents. They are encouraged to measure the pupil diameter (using an on-screen cross-hair cursor) at a range of light intensities and to observe, for each eye, the speed with which the pupil diameter changes. They can also investigate the action of a number of pharmacological agents applied topically to the eye (single dose, enough for a large, but not maximal, response in eyes that are responsive) and record their observations on an on-screen chart. The agents available (atropine, pilocarpine, physostigmine, phenylephrine, cocaine, and amphetamine) all affect neurotransmission at the postganglionic sympathetic and parasympathetic synapses and have little effect on ganglionic transmission. There is also a ‘washout’ facility which instantly removes the applied drugs whereas in the real situation several hours might be required for some of the drug effects to be reversed.

The ‘Simulation’ section contains four virtual patients each suffering from a medical condition which results in an abnormal pupillary reflex in one eye:

• normal but with reddening of the eye and physiological anischoria;

• Horner’s syndrome (pre-ganglionic);

• Horner’s syndrome (postganglionic);

• partial parasympathectomy.

Students first take measurements of the response to a change in light intensity which should give a clue to the underlying problem. They can then investigate this further by choosing two of the drugs from the list and observing their effects - that is sufficient to test the best hypothesis for each patient. To confirm their diagnosis students can then choose to administer one more agent after which they will be expected to select a diagnosis from the list.

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Intestinal Motility - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-33 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshots

A computer simulation of experiments to demonstrate
the effects of drugs on colonic peristalsis

This program is designed to simulate experiments which may be performed on an isolated preparation of rat colon to study intestinal motility. Peristalsis in the rat colon differs in detail, but not in principle, from that in human colon, or indeed from small intestinal peristalsis.

The Tutorial section program explains, using animations and high quality graphics the mechanism of peristalsis and the excitatory and inhibitory nervous pathways which influence it.

Methods and Materials describes with the aid of diagrams the apparatus, the method of administering control and test agents and how the peristaltic reflex test is performed. The effects of these procedures on longitudinal muscle tension (g) and fluid propulsion from a drop counter (number of drops over time) are also explained.

Experiments allows the user to see the effects of physiological stimuli (activation of the peristaltic reflex by distension of the colon with saline) and of the following automotive pharmacological agents either administered alone or in combination:

• saline (control)

• atropine

• neostigmine

• acetylcholine

• carbachol

• epinephrine

Self-assessment: each experiment is accompanied by a series of true/false questions designed to assess students interpretation of the displayed results and their understanding of the underlying pharmacological mechanisms

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Guinea Pig Ileum - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-34 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshots

A computer simulation program to teach the effects of drugs and electrical
stimulation on the enteric nervous system

This program simulates an isolated preparation of the guinea pig ileum, a smooth muscle preparation exhibiting little spontaneous contractile activity, which is extensively used for pharmacological studies. Its aim is to enable the exploration of the effects of drugs and electrical stimulation on the release of, and response to, neurotransmitters in the enteric nervous system. Simulated responses are derived from a model which presents the contractile response of the ileum both to added drugs and to transmural electrical stimulation. Learning is through exploration and the program places at the disposal of the user a range of DRUGS (acetylcholine, histamine, clonidine, morphine, naloxone, phentolamine, atropine, mepyramine) which may be added alone or in combination to the organ bath in a range of DOSES, and an electrical STIMULATOR. A ‘magic’ WASH facility instantly removes all traces of added drugs and greatly speeds up the process of data collection compared to the real experiment. Simulated contractions of the gut are presented on a scrolling display comparable to that of a chart recorder. Students may take measurements directly from the monitor.

The program has four sections: Introduction uses text, high quality graphics and quizzes to enable students to learn the appropriate structures in the small intestine and the pharmacological basis of how motility is controlled. Methods describes the apparatus and the experimental protocols. A Pretest section tests the students understanding of the information presented in the introduction and methods sections. Experiments is the main section and allows students to simulate performing several experiments:

• action of drugs (acetylcholine, histamine, atropine and mepyramine);

• dose response curve for acetylcholine and determination of ED50;

• dose response curve for acetylcholine in the presence of atropine and determination of ED50;

• effects of low frequency transmural electrical stimulation (10V, 0.1 Hz) and the action of drugs (atropine, phentolamine, naloxone, clonidine, morphine)

• effects of high-frequency transmural electrical stimulation (10V, 10Hz) and the action of naloxone and phentolamine.

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Inflammation Pharmacology - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-13 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1   Screenshot_2

A computer simulation of experiments to demonstrate the effects of pharmacological
agents on the cutaneous inflammatory response in the anaesthetised rabbit

Introduction and Methods sections combine text and high- quality colour graphics to describe the animal preparation, the methods employed to measure oedema formation (extravascular accumulation of 125I - albumin) and neutrophil accumulation, and to provide the student with the essential background information required to understand the how the inflammatory response is triggered, and the mechanisms involved.

The Experiments section allows the student to select, from a menu, to study the effects of the following agents on oedema formation (and where appropriate on neutrophil numbers) in normal rabbits:

1. A range of direct mediators of increased microvascular permeability [histamine, bradykinin, platelet activating factor (PAF), Substance P, leukotriene D₄], either alone (dose-response relationships), in the presence of a vasodilator (PGE₂) or with receptor antagonists;
2. A range of agents which cause inflammation principally via neutrophil accumulation [complement Factor C5a, cytokines interleukins IL-1 and IL-8, the bacterial peptide f-methyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP), leukotriene B4, Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF_alpha)], either alone (dose-response relationships) and in the presence of a vasodilator (PGE₂). The effects of neutrophil depletion and the importance of adhesion molecules are also covered;
3. Non-steroidal (local and systemic effects) and steroidal anti-inflammatory agents.

A section describing the results of selected experiments using sensitised rabbits is also included and covers the IgG (Reverse Passive Arthus response) and IgE response.

The results are presented in graphical form either as bar-charts or line graphs. The program contains numerous self-assessment exercises which demand interpretation of experimental data presented to them, and an understanding of the underlying inflammatory mechanisms. These student-centred activities make the program useful for self-directed learning or, in the ideal situation, it would be incorporated into a structured teaching programme and used with a teacher-designed workbook.

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Experimental Design - Wins   Mac Single User Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-9 $110.00 ADD TO CART Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-9SL $450.00 ADD TO CART Multi-User Non-Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-9NE $950.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1

A highly interactive computer based learning package to
teach better experimental design

'Experimental Design’ aims to help researchers, particularly those working with animals, to design more effective experiments which will deliver more information, produce more conclusive results, improve interpretation and reduce the number of experimental animals required. It combines real life scenarios, working examples and background theory and throughout the student learns by exploration and engages in interactive practical exercises that give hands on exposure to the key concepts in experimental design. The program has been designed with the close collaboration of research scientists in industry and academia. In addition, members of the scientific community ranging from post-graduates to project leaders have evaluated the software to ensure the appropriateness of its content.

Aims: to enable the research scientist to:

- estimate the number of animals needed to attain the scientific objectives economically and effectively.
- select a suitable animal model
- avoid bias and deal with variability
- use appropriate statistical methods or more effectively consult professional statisticians

Sections exploring the key issues in experimental design are accessed from a menu.

• Introduction & Aims - primes the user as to why experimental design is so critical. Engages the user with data from a simple experiment to highlight design flaws.
• Choice of Animal Model - explores the use different strains (inbred and outbred stock) and covers the various types of animal model (predictive, explanatory, exploratory).
• The Experimental Unit - uses interactive examples to explain the critical nature of the experimental unit and it's importance.
• Eliminating Bias - covers techniques you can employ to remove systematic differences between treatment groups and ensure your experiments are not biased. Again interactive examples are used
• Applying Valid Statistics - covers the application of valid statistical tests to your data, explores the definition of hypotheses, choices of statistical tests, and interpretation of P.
• Improving Precision - making experiments more precise so that we can detect treatment differences. Ways of achieving this - ensuring uniformity, use of blocking, using power analysis and the resource equation method.
• Increasing the Range of Applicability - using your resources effectively to enable you to interpret your findings over a wider range e.g. different treatments, different strains, sexes, sizes. Use of multi-factorial design.
• Planning and Organising - key issues in designing and analysing effective (simple) experiments.
• Self-Assessment Activity - series of case studies and true/false questions with feedback to self-assess your understanding.
• Software Tools & References - where to get further information.

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PK-SIMS - Wins Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-22 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1

An interactive pharmacokinetic simulation program which presents
graphical displays of the relationship between dosage
regimen and drug plasma levels

1. The individual may be "normal", suffering from severe liver damage or suffering severe kidney failure;
2. A range of drugs are available: ampicillin, digoxin, propranolol, phenytoin, diazepam, lignocaine, quinidine, gentamicin, paracetamol.
3. Different routes of administration: single i.v. dose, single oral dose, repeated i.v. dose, repeated oral dose, continuous i.v. infusion, single sub-cutaneous dose, single i.m. dose.
4. Different dosage regimen: size of the drug dose, duration of the investigation, dose interval, size of any loading dose administered,

Once the program parameters have been selected, the program will calculate the drug plasma concentrations and present, on-screen, a variety of graphical (plasma concentration of drug (y-axis) against time (x-axis) using either linear x-y axes or log y linear x-axes) or numerical outputs. The display also shows recommended upper and lower plasma concentration levels for the chosen drug.

The program is aimed at students of pharmacology on a variety of undergraduate courses e.g. medicine, dentistry and biomedical sciences. The program is supported by printed student-centred exercises.

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Respiratory Pharmacology - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-24 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1

An interactive computer simulation of experiments on guinea pig airways designed
to teach the fundamental pharmacology of the airways

• The aims and objectives of the program
• the structure of the airways, the physiological control of bronchial smooth muscle tone pharmacology, airway smooth muscle receptor pharmacology, pathophysiology (asthma and COPD) and it’s treatment.
• the guinea pig preparation and the apparatus used to monitor airway function.

• Vehicle (0.9ml saline);
• Bronchoconstrictors (Histamine: 3 single doses and + mepyramine, + indomethacin, + propranolol;
• Acetylcholine (3 single doses and + atropine, + indomethacin, + propranolol;
• Bradykinin (3 single doses and + indomethacin;)
• Vagal Stimulation: (low frequency stimulation, LF + atropine, high frequency stimulation, HF + atropine);
• Bronchodilators (bombesin treated: single dose, + epinephrine, + mepyramine)

• Histamine, + mepyramine;
• LTC4 + mepyramine, + montelucast;
• Antigen (i.v.) + mepyramine; + mepyramine and montelucast.

Medicine - The Discovery Process - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-17 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1   Screenshot_2

An interactive computer-based tutorial to introduce the
principles of the drug discovery process

This highly interactive program combines a tutorial and a self-assessment exercise in the form of a ‘game’.

Tutorial – this is divided into several sections, each of which may be accessed in any order:

• The Pharmaceutical Industry - setting the scene: an introduction to the industry, some historical aspects of drug discovery, different functions of medicines;
• Selecting a Disease Area: describes the sort of issues which the industry will consider in deciding what sort of drug they wish to develop;
• Selecting the target: introduces potential drug targets (enzymes, receptors and ion channels) and uses examples of common diseases to illustrate how different drugs act;
• Initial Screening: describes techniques (high throughput screening) and principles of using an assay to test large libraries of potential compounds;
• The Screening Cascade: covers the methods (enzyme assay, cell assay, mode of action test, selectivity test and optimization) used to identify a small number of potential compounds with which to proceed into development;
• Safety Testing and Clinical Trials: describes methods of toxicity testing, and phase I, II and III of clinical trials;
• Self-assessment section: contains a number of largely multiple-choice questions covering each of the sections

High quality colour graphics are used extensively throughout the program, and features such as animation, a glossary and hotword facility are used to enhance student learning. The program is highly interactive and uses several features to promote this. For example, the main sections all have associated student tasks/self-assessment questions, e.g., true/false questions with feedback, drag-and-drop exercises, data interpretation exercises, calculations, case histories, role-play decision-making group activities. These are designed to consolidate knowledge and to allow students to self-assess their understanding of the section they have completed. They are also used to present additional information and explanations through the feedback. Glossary (definitions of terms) and hotword/hypertext links (fuller explanations of terms and concepts) are used throughout. The section of multiple-choice questions allows students to self-assess their knowledge.

The learning package is intended to be used either: to support existing teaching of modules containing pharmacology, or for independent study. Brief trials with high school students have indicated that it would occupy students for one to two hours of study and that it works best when students study in pairs.

Student Exercise - takes the form of a ‘game’ and is designed to complement the interactive tutorial. Students are placed in the shoes of a project team working for a fictitious pharmaceutical company ‘Lion Pharmaceuticals’. They have a brief to identify three potential new medicines to treat prostate cancer (the selected disease area) starting with Lion’s library of compounds and an identified target (a key enzyme).

The team have to make crucial decisions at each step of the process. Poor decisions trigger the intervention of a Project Manager whose job is to keep the team within budget and on schedule. He advises the team when he intervenes but also penalizes them with the loss of a ‘life’. The team have to complete the task with the loss of fewer than five ‘lives’.

The game is divided into four sections which follow closely mirror the approach of the tutorial program.

• High Throughput Screening – students must decide the number of compounds from the library to test and, using a simulated spread-sheet to help them, decide on the optimum use of resources (human and machine) to complete the task.
• The Screening Cascade (enzyme assay, cell assay, mode of action test) - students have to decide on the best way of conducting this series of tests – either to develop and carry out the tests in series or in parallel.
• Compound Profiling - here students study the properties (water solubility, toxicity, ionic charge and chemical ‘attractiveness’) of the small number of families of compounds and singletons and select three to take into the final stage.
• Animal (in vivo) testing - at this stage there are ten possible compounds remaining. Students have to reduce this number to three by eliminating ‘candidates’ from results of five ‘in vivo’ studies in animals. They are presented with results of the compounds on: plasma concentration (after oral dosing in mice); target enzyme activity in rats; prostate gland weight in rabbits in which prostate cancer has been induced; tumour cell growth rate; and preliminary safety and toxicity testing.

The emphasis is on reinforcing their learning and highlighting important principles of the discovery process e.g. efficient use of resources, use relatively inexpensive in vitro testing for preliminary screening, in vivo (animal) studies are expensive, the discovery process is long (several years) and very costly.

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Neuromuscular Pharmacology - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-20 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1

A computer simulation of experiments which may be performed on cat sciatic
nerve-tibialis anterior muscle in vivo to teach the essentials
of neuromuscular pharmacology

An on-screen student handbook covers:

• an outline, using text and graphics of the process of neuromuscular transmission
• the preparation of the anaesthetised cat,
• the protocol for sciatic nerve stimulation and isometric recording of evoked contractions of the anterior tibialis muscle.
• a summary of the actions of the different types of blocking agents
• the clinical relevance of the different blocking agents.

The Experiments Section presents high-resolution graphic simulations of experimental results (muscle contractions), in accelerated time, on a scrolling display to simulate a chart recorder.

Phase I experiments - each experiment compares the action of the two types of neuromuscular blocking agent using d-tubocurarine as an example of a non-depolarizing blocker and decamethonium as an example of a depolarizing blocker.

• administered i.v.
• administered close arterially
• inconjunction with an anticholinesterase
• inconjunction with a different competitive (non-depolarizing) blocker
• inconjunction with a different depolarizing blocker
• inresponse to tetanic stimulation
• inresponse to acetylcholine administered by close arterial injection.

Phase II experiments

• the effects of four successive doses of decamethonium followed by the effects of tetanic stimulation and an anticholinesterase

Student Activities

Each experiment has an associated student activity designed to assess understanding of the experimental results. These might be a series of true/false statements or a table to complete. There are also some suggested questions which would form the basis of a report of the experiment.

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Neuromuscular Junction - Wins   Mac Multi-User Educational Shipped in 4 days Cat.# SB-28 $450.00 ADD TO CART Screenshot_1

A computer-based, interactive tutorial to teach the essential physiology
and pharmacology to undergraduate students

Learning Objectives: after working through this program students should be able to:

• Describe the functional anatomy of the skeletal neuromuscular junction;
• Explain the process of neurotransmission;
• Describe the characteristics of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and the actions of acetylcholine at these receptors;
• Explain the differences in mode of action of depolarising and non-depolarising neuromuscular blocking agents and the characteristics of the blocks they produce;
• Describe the clinical use of anticholinesterases;
• Discuss the clinical implications of using neuromuscular blocking agents.

Content: the program is divided into several sections:

Introduction: gives an overview of content and approach of the program;

Neuromuscular Transmission: uses animated stepwise sequences to describe synthesis of acetylcholine, transmitter release mechanisms, action of acetylcholine at receptors and transmitter inactivation;

Acetylcholine Receptors: describes the function of and action of acetylcholine at both pre- and post-synaptic nicotinic receptors;

Pharmacology: gives examples of, and describes the characteristics and mechanism of action of depolarising and non-depolarising neuromuscular blocking agents and anticholinesterases;

Clinical Aspects: covers the clinical use of neuromuscular blocking agents and anticholinesterases (particularly for treatment of myaesthenia gravis). This section describes how depth of blockade may be monitored, and the pharmacokinetics, characteristics, side-effects and drug interactions of clinically used drugs.

The approach is to combine succinct textual/factual descriptions with graphics and to use features such as animation and hotwords where appropriate. Hotwords function either to define terms which may be unfamiliar to the student or to provide additional, sometimes more detailed or advanced information. Some experimental data, which illustrates the different actions of neuromuscular blocking agents in animal models, is also used. The program contains numerous self-assessment questions e.g. multiple choice and true/false questions with feedback, drag and drop exercises (to test e.g. knowledge of stepwise sequences), and clinically-related scenarios. These are designed primarily to promote and reinforce learning rather than to test students. Learning by this method is non-intimidating, is independent of time and place, may be self-paced and may take place either individually or in small groups.

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