Fragment-Based Drug Discovery against Mycobacteria: The Success and Challenges.

The emergence of drug-resistant mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), poses an increasing global threat that urgently demands the development of new potent anti-mycobacterial drugs. One of the approaches toward the identification of new drugs is fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD), which is the most ingenious among other drug discovery models, such as structure-based drug design (SBDD) and high-throughput screening. Specialized techniques, such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and many others, are part of the drug discovery approach to combat the Mtb and NTM global menaces.

Impact of body mass index on pathological complete response and survival of breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Background: High body mass index (BMI) is regarded as a poor prognostic factor in breast cancer (BC). However, its association with pathological complete response (pCR) and survival after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) remains controversial.

Objective: We wanted to assess the prognostic impact of BMI in this setting.

Air Quality in Africa: Public Health Implications.

This review highlights the importance of air quality in the African urban development process. We address connections between air pollution and () rapid urbanization, () social problems, () health impacts, () climate change, () policies, and () new innovations. We acknowledge that air pollution levels in Africa can be extremely high and a serious health threat.

Methamphetamine alters the TLR4 signaling pathway, NF-κB activation, and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in LPS-challenged NR-9460 microglia-like cells.

Methamphetamine (METH) is a major public health and safety problem worldwide. METH is psychostimulant that activates microglia via the toll-like receptor (TLR) 4/MD2 complex, modulating the abundant production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the central nervous system (CNS). The TLR4/MD2 complex on the surface of microglia recognizes pathogen-associated molecular patterns such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resulting in brain tissue inflammation and neuronal damage.

Amikacin alters auditory brainstem conduction time in newborns.

The purpose of this paper was to describe whether there are some relationships between amikacin serum levels and central conduction time in brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP) within therapeutic range levels in newborns as index of drug toxicity in brainstem auditory centers in neonatally exposed infants. We performed a cross-sectional study to compare BAEP from 35 infants under amikacin administration and 24 control infants; both examinations were blinded to investigators. Bivariate and partial correlations were calculated between amikacin and BAEP measurements in treated infants.