Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
Tolerance to a drug will over time diminish its effectiveness. Tolerance to the effects of opioids is thought to be a result of a change in the receptors. Other receptors will become less sensitive with a reduction in their number over time when stimulated with large amounts of drug or endogenous agonist, for example catecholamines. Tolerance to the organic nitrates may be the result of the reduced metabolism of these drugs to the active molecule, nitric oxide, as a result of a depletion within blood vessels of compounds containing the sulphydryl group. Acetylcysteine, a sulphydryl group donor, is occasionally used to prevent nitrate tolerance.
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