Lesson 11: Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAID's)

• Understand the inflammation mechanism of action initiated by arachidonic acid (phospholipid release of arachidonic acid, generation of prostaglandins and thromboxanes through cyclooxygenase pathway, generation of leukotrienes through lipoxygenase mechanism)
• Understand the mechanism of action of cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors
• Identify key structural features of NSAIDs and understand of specific important interactions with COX enzymes
• Understand the specific interaction between the NSAID carboxylic group  and the COX Arg-120 side chain; describe and effectively explain the effect upon K_m values that occur when neutral glutamine is substituted for Arg-120
• Understand and clearly discuss aspirin's unique mechanism of action for irreversible COX inhibition