Course Gaps at Abia State University, Uturu
Abia State University, Uturu has flagged these CCMAS courses as needing diaspora expertise. Open a course to see its full details and express interest in teaching it.
12
Courses Flagged
10
Faculties
168
Programmes
Showing 1–2
of 2 courses
PHA 303
1 Unit(s) (LH 15)
1 institution need this
Flagged 10 Aug 2026
At the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. identify the main steps involved in neurotransmission; 2. recognise the anatomical and chemical characteristics of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous syst...
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Introduction - Theory of Chemical Neurotransmission Evidence for Acetylcholine as a Cholinergic
neurotransmitter. Detection and Bioassay of acetylcholine. Cholinergic receptors, sites of action
of acetylcholine at the Neuromuscular junction. Agonists and antagonists of cholinergic
transmission. Parasympathomimetic and parasympatholytic drugs. Structure – Activity
Relationships among the cholinergic and anticholinergic agents. Cholinesterases and anti-
cholinesterases. Properties and uses of anti-cholinesterases (reversible and irreversible). Brief
mention of cholinesterase reactivators (pralidoxime, obidoxime) and their uses. Neuromuscular
transmission and drugs which enhance neuromuscular transmission. Neuromuscular Blockade.
Smooth muscle relaxants. Ganglion stimulation and blockade and their properties.
PHA 307
2 Unit(s) (LH 15; PH 45)
3 institutions need this
Flagged 10 Aug 2026
At the end of the course, students should be able to 1. illustrate major approaches to drug discovery; 2. restate properties of drugs; 3. explain the techniques used to identify drug targets and lead compounds; 4. discus...
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Introduction: Medicines and discovery processes. Initial stages: Target discovery; applications of
molecular biology, in silico methods and assays; lead discovery; lead optimization; biomarkers.
Measurement of drug properties: assay techniques; agonists (full, partial, inverse and biased);
competitive antagonists. In vivo models; pharmacokinetic profiles of compounds;
pharmacogenetics and formulations. Pre-clinical safety assessment including acute toxicity
evaluation, subacute and chronic toxicity studies, reproductive toxicity, carcinogenicity studies,
mutagenicity and mechanistic toxicity studies. Limitations of preclinical studies. Problems
associated with drug discovery and development. Later stages: Pharmaceutical development;
phases of clinical evaluation; ethics (informed consent, good clinical practice, participation criteria,
sponsorship) and concepts in clinical trial design. Pharmacovigilance.
e-Learning Activity
Links are provided to additional resources (further reading, videos, on-line activities) to support
the lecture content.
Online self-assessment modules on the course content can be provided for formative feedback.
Practical: Experiments are designed to reflect the topics covered including spectrophotometry,
chromatography, flow cytometry.