THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON VARIOUS STRESS FACTORS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH HAIR FALL: AN ONLINE-BASED SURVEY AMONG BANGLADESHI RESIDENTS

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered several stress factors throughout the entire world. Some stress factors, such as mental, economical, educational etc., have created consequences like hair fall, as seen in individuals in many countries, including Bangladesh. The present study was designed to investigate the COVID-19-induced stress factors and their relation with hair loss in the people of Bangladesh. Methods: An online-based survey study was carried out using a self-made questionnaire, and quantitative data were analyzed by a cross-sectional analysis over the period of two months from November 25, 2020, to January 24, 2021. Participants who were willing to participate into this survey were considered as study individuals. This survey was conducted among participants with the age’s ≥18 years. The participants were selected by snowball sampling technique, and the final collected sample size was 808. Results: Among 808 participants, males and females were 50.3% (406) and 49.7% (402) respectively. We found that 5% (37) participants were infected with Covid-19, 89% (715) were not infected, and 7% (56) were unknown. It is found that COVID-19-induced stress conditions including, educational 28%, mental 25%, and economical 20% were found in 81% (655) participants and rendered 68% (550) people facing the hair fall problem due to COVID-19-related stress. Female individuals who were more stressed were 74.6% (300) and had hair fall, whereas males were 38.7% (157). In addition, the increased rate of hair fall in COVID-19 is associated with other factors, such as eating disorders and scalp infections, as reported by some respondents. Conclusion: In pandemic situations, most of the people (81%) passed through the stressful condition, and the females experienced more hair fall problems than male one. High blood pressure, eating disorder and irregular sleep pattern are considered stress-induced factors that were responsible for increased hair loss

Breaking down resistance: Verapamil analogues augment the efficacy of antibiotics against Streptococcus pneumoniae via MATE transporter interference

Pneumonia, an infectious lung disease, is a significant global health concern, claiming the lives of 740,180 children in 2019, which accounts for 14 % of pediatric deaths. Recently, the management of pediatric pneumonia has become complex due to exposure to indoor and outdoor environmental toxins. Notably, exposure to pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria during community and hospital-acquired pneumonia poses a serious threat to patient outcomes. The development of antibiotic resistance against Streptococcus pneumoniae is driven by the DinF efflux pump protein, which expels antibiotics from bacterial cells, leading to multidrug resistance. Therefore, blocking DinF could serve as a strategy to combat antibiotic resistance. This study aimed to identify DinF inhibitors from compounds analogous to verapamil, a well-known DinF inhibitor, through computational techniques including molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, ADMET analysis, MMGBSA, quantum mechanics, and Network Pharmacology. After considering docking scores, results of MMGBSA, quantum mechanics, Molecular Dynamics Simulations, ADMET analysis and network pharmacology profiling four compounds namely netarsudil, rimegepant, GSK-1521498 and tariquidar were found as the most promising DinF inhibitors. Therefore, these compounds hold a great promise as leads to the development of potent DinF inhibitors; however, further studies are needed to warrant their clinical uses against antibiotic resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae-induced pneumonia