Background: The dramatic loan growth and changes in the Pakistani banking system in mid-2000s have led to significant research attention on borrowers and lenders. This expansion and diversification in financial sector was driven by structural reforms, political stability and significant economic growth. Against this background, this study investigates the loan growth and risk-taking behavior of the banks during the expansionary periods of lending. Method: This study used dynamic two-step system generalized method of moment's estimation technique, based on data taken from 32 banks in Pakistan over 2006-2014. Result: Loan growth has a significant effect on bank-specific and macroeconomicspecific variables. Loan growth in the previous year raises non-performing loans and decreases the solvency of banks with a time lag of many years. The driving force behind this phenomenon is weak prudential regulation among competitors, the asymmetric information of the borrowers, and, most importantly, that banks underestimate the risk of lending during credit booms. Conclusion: More regulatory measures are required to ensure a strong financial system when the volume of non-performing loan grows significantly. An increase in the capital requirement policy for rapidly growing banks is also needed because the problem of abnormal loan growth cannot be detected at the current time. At the same time, strong supervision is necessary to avoid the adverse consequences of borrower selection.

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Chagas disease (CD) is a neglected disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which affects underdeveloped countries. The current drugs of choice are nifurtimox and benznidazole, but both have severe adverse effects and less effectivity in chronic infections; therefore, the need to discover new drugs is essential. A computer-guided drug repositioning method was applied to identify potential FDA drugs (approved and withdrawn) as cruzain (Cz) inhibitors and trypanocidal effects were confirmed by in vitro and in vivo studies. 3180 FDA drugs were virtually screened using a structure-based approach. From a first molecular docking analysis, a set of 33 compounds with the best binding energies were selected. Subsequent consensus affinity binding, ligand amino acid contact clustering analysis, and ranked position were used to choose four known pharmacological compounds to be tested in vitro. Mouse blood samples infected with trypomastigotes from INC-5 and NINOA strains were used to test the trypanocidal effect of four selected compounds. Among these drugs, one fibrate antilipemic (etofyllin clofibrate) and three β-lactam antibiotics (piperacillin, cefoperazone, and flucloxacillin) showed better trypanocidal effects (LC50 range 15.8–26.1 μg/mL) in comparison with benznidazole and nifurtimox (LC50 range 33.1–46.7 μg/mL). A short-term in vivo evaluation of these compounds showed a reduction of parasitemia in infected mice (range 90–60%) at 6 h, but this was low compared to benznidazole (50%). This work suggests that four known FDA drugs could be used to design and obtain new trypanocidal agents.

Compound 2 from T. patula flower exhibited both growth inhibitory and cytotoxic properties while 1 and 3 were only growth inhibitory against HeLa. 1-3 also displayed antioxidant properties implying its probable role in growth inhibition/cytotoxic action. The present study provides scientific evidence for the use of T. patula flower in cancer treatment by traditional healer.