Tissue selectivity is a topic in
distribution (pharmacology) and property of some
drug
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...
s. It refers to when a drug occurs in disproportionate concentrations and/or has disproportionate effects in specific
tissues relative to other tissues.
An example of such drugs are
selective estrogen receptor modulator
Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), also known as estrogen receptor agonist/antagonists (ERAAs), are a class of drugs that act on the estrogen receptor (ER). A characteristic that distinguishes these substances from pure ER agonists a ...
s (SERM) like
tamoxifen, which show
estrogenic effects in some tissues and
antiestrogenic effects in other tissues. Another example is
peripherally-selective drugs, which do not cross the
blood-brain-barrier into the
central nervous system and hence are tissue-selective for the periphery.
References
Pharmacology
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