Background: Falls in older people have been characterized extensively in the literature, however little has been reported regarding falls in middle-aged and younger adults. The objective of this paper is to describe the perceived cause, environmental influences and resultant injuries of falls in 1497 young (20–45 years), middle-aged (46–65 years) and older (> 65 years) men and women from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging. Methods: A descriptive study where participants completed a fall history questionnaire describing the circumstances surrounding falls in the previous two years. Results: The reporting of falls increased with age from 18% in young, to 21% in middle-aged and 35% in older adults, with higher rates in women than men. Ambulation was cited as the cause of the fall most frequently in all gender and age groups. Our population reported a higher percentage of injuries (70.5%) than previous studies. The young group reported injuries most frequently to wrist/hand, knees and ankles; the middle-aged to their knees and the older group to their head and knees. Women reported a higher percentage of injuries in all age groups. Conclusion: This is the first study to compare falls in young, middle and older aged men and women. Significant differences were found between the three age groups with respect to number of falls, activities engaged in prior to falling, perceived causes of the fall and where they fell.

Introduction: The concept of privileged structures is well known and is often used in the process of drug design and development. Although its assumptions are not clear, its overall usefulness remains high. Various substructures have been identified as privileged and quinoline is a prime example of such a structure. Areas covered: Quinoline drugs that are currently approved or under clinical investigation were reviewed based on a literature search. Their modes of action and outcomes during clinical research are discussed. Expert opinion: Undoubtedly, quinoline-based compounds have a significant impact on anticancer drugs. Although topoisomerase and kinase inhibitors are the only two different classes of agents that are currently approved for anticancer therapy, more than twenty different drug candidates are being tested on humans. The quinoline moiety offers an easily accessible, well-understood scaffold for designing new drugs. It is also a very druggable molecule with the potency for structure optimization through established synthetic pathways. For these reasons, quinoline-based anticancer drugs have a strong position in modern medicinal chemistry.

Although the assortment of antifungal drugs is broad, the most commonly used agents have major drawbacks. Toxicity, serious side effects or the emergence of drug resistance are amongst them. New drugs and drug candidates under clinical trials do not guarantee better pharmacological parameters. These new medicines may appear effective; however; they may cause serious side effects. This current review is focused on the recent findings in the design of quinoline based antifungal agents. This field seems to be especially interesting as 8-hydroxyquinoline and its metal complexes have been well known as antifungals for years. Structural similarities between quinoline based antifungals and allylamines or homoallylamines, e.g. terbinafine is another interesting fact. Quinoline can be identified in a number of synthetic and natural antifungals, which indicates natures preference for this fragment and identifying it as one of the so-called privileged structures. We have discussed new trends in the design of quinolines with antifungal properties, their possible targets and the structure activity relationships within the antifungal series developed.