Infectious diseases are one of the most important and urgent health problems in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, infectious and parasitic diseases are a cause of about 16% of all deaths worldwide and over 40% of deaths in Africa. A considerable progress that has been made during last hundred years in the fight against infectious diseases, in particular bacterial infections, can be attributed mainly to three factors: (1) the general improvement of living conditions, in particular sanitation; (2) development of vaccines and (3) development of efficient antibacterial drugs. Although considerable progress in reduction of the number of cases of bacterial infections, especially in lethal cases, has been made, continued cases and outbreaks of these diseases persist, which is caused by different contributing factors. Indeed, during last sixty years antibacterial drugs were used against various infectious diseases caused by bacterial pathogens with an undoubtable success. The most fruitful period for antibiotic development lasted from 40's to 60's of the last century and resulted in the majority of antibiotics currently on the market, which were obtained by screening actinomycetes derived from soil. Although the market for antibacterial drugs is nowadays greater than 25 billion US dollars per year, novel antibacterial drugs are still demanded due to developed resistance of many pathogenic bacteria against current antibiotics. In the last five years, one can observe a dramatic increase in cases of resistant bacteria strains (e.g. Klebsiella pneumoniae and E. coli) which are responsible for difficult to treat pneumonia and infections of urinary tract. The development of resistant bacteria strains is a side effect of antibiotic application for treatment: the infections become untreatable as a result of the existence of antibiotic-tolerant persisters. In this review, we discuss the challenges in antibacterial drug discovery, including the molecular basis of drug resistance, drug targets for novel antibacterial drugs, and new compounds (since year 2010) from different chemical classes with antibacterial activity, focusing on structure-activity relationships.
Pain is a symptom of many diseases and significantly affects the quality of life, so researchers are constantly seeking new substances to be used as analgesics. Other, easier way is to combine already known drugs which cause synergistic effects greater than additive, so that probability of drug-specific side effects can be reduced. Researchers showed that caffeine can be an effective analgesic adjuvant enhancing antinociceptive effect of ibuprofen in animals and humans. By using modern drug technology methods tablets containing well-soluble ibuprofen salt and caffeine can be easily prepared. Thanks to that combination, the therapeutic dose of ibuprofen can be lowered and the side effects may be reduced.
With the rapid development of computer technology, gaming has become more popular, and young people spend more and more time playing such games. It is thought that this a major factor responsible for the lowered physical activity of today's society. For a better understanding of the issue, we assessed how many students spend their free time playing video games, and how this form of recreation affects their levels of physical activity. The investigation of the relationship between physical activity and playing computer games was undertaken via a questionnaire containing 16 questions, and this was applied to a representative sample of 138 students drawn from Lublin's universities. The results of this show that males are more physically active (85% compared to 75% women). However, only 9% men and 13% women train every day. To keep the body in shape, the most common activity for the respondents is aerobics training (approx. 30%), walking and cycling. Such exercise is performed to improve or keep in shape, and as a form of relaxation. However, one third of all respondents play video games, 70% of these are males and only 16% are females. What is more, our results show that there was no correlation between level of physical activity and gaming. In both groups, about 80% of all respondents are physically active. Yet, among the players, there are more overweight people (28%), as compared to 10% in the non�player group. Still, players, in contrast to popular opinion, are more active than non�playing people. No association was found between playing computer games and health problems.
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