IC50 facts for kids

The IC₅₀ is a measure of how effective a drug is. It indicates how much of a particular drug or other substance is needed to inhibit a given biological process (or component of a process, i.e. an enzyme, cell, cell receptor or microorganism) by half. In other words, it is the half minimal (50%) inhibitory concentration (IC) of a substance (50% IC, or IC₅₀). It is commonly used as a measure of antagonist drug potency in pharmacological research. Sometimes, it is also converted to the pIC₅₀ scale (-log IC₅₀), in which higher values indicate exponentially greater potency. According to the FDA, IC₅₀ represents the concentration of a drug that is required for 50% inhibition in vitro. It is comparable to an EC₅₀ for agonist drugs. EC₅₀ also represents the plasma concentration required for obtaining 50% of a maximum effect in vivo.

Images for kids

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  Visual demonstration of how to derive IC50 value: Arrange data with inhibition on vertical axis and log(concentration) on horizontal axis; then identify max and min inhibition; then the IC50 is the concentration at which the curve passes through the 50% inhibition level.