Words you keep seeing
Words you keep seeing: 6 articles from What Are Peptides. Plain-English answers about peptides.
What Does Mechanism of Action Mean? The 'How' Behind a Drug
Almost every compound article has a 'mechanism of action' section. It describes how a substance is thought to work, not whether it will give any particular result. Here is what the phrase promises, what it leaves out, and why 'proposed mechanism' is the phrase to watch.
What Is a Peptide Bond?
It is the link that joins one amino acid to the next. Here is how it forms, why a molecule of water leaves when it does, why it gives every chain a front and a back, and why it can last centuries in a bottle yet be cut in seconds in your gut.
What Is a Synthetic Peptide?
A synthetic peptide is one assembled by chemistry rather than built by a living cell. If the sequence is the same, the molecule is the same. What differs is everything that comes along with it, and that is where the word earns its keep.
What Is an Agonist?
An agonist is a molecule that fits a receptor and switches it on. That one line is true, and it hides nearly everything interesting about the word: switching on comes in degrees, it can even run backwards, and it tells you much less about a drug than it seems to.
What Is an Analogue?
An analogue is a copy of a natural molecule with deliberate edits. Here is why the edits are made, how far a copy can drift before it stops being a copy, and how drug names quietly tell you which family an analogue belongs to.
What Is Bioavailability?
Bioavailability is the share of a substance that actually reaches your bloodstream, and how quickly it gets there. It sounds like a technical footnote. It is the reason the route matters as much as the molecule, and the reason the word on a label deserves a second look.