Inflammation, stress and environmental factors as determinants of nsaid efficacy and toxicity

Summary

Factors determining a drug’s potency/toxicity include not only those of an intrinsic nature, by virtue of its chemical structure, but also extrinsic ones, particularly the environment in which its bioreactivity will be expressed. These extrinsic factors may be used accidentally, or by design, to determine/condition a drug’s performance. Such conditioning factors (CF), particularly if they are disease-related, may allow the drug action to be focused or amplified. This is illustrated by the following three examples.