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  1. Kaur B, Karnwal A, Bansal A, Malik T
    Biomed Res Int, 2024;2024:4066641.
    PMID: 38962403 DOI: 10.1155/2024/4066641
    The zoonotic viruses pose significant threats to public health. Nipah virus (NiV) is an emerging virus transmitted from bats to humans. The NiV causes severe encephalitis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, leading to high mortality rates, with fatality rates ranging from 40% to 75%. The first emergence of the disease was found in Malaysia in 1998-1999 and later in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and other South and Southeast Asian nations. Currently, no specific vaccines or antiviral drugs are available. The potential advantages of epitope-based vaccines include their ability to elicit specific immune responses while minimizing potential side effects. The epitopes have been identified from the conserved region of viral proteins obtained from the UniProt database. The selection of conserved epitopes involves analyzing the genetic sequences of various viral strains. The present study identified two B cell epitopes, seven cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, and seven helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitope interactions from the NiV proteomic inventory. The antigenic and physiological properties of retrieved protein were analyzed using online servers ToxinPred, VaxiJen v2.0, and AllerTOP. The final vaccine candidate has a total combined coverage range of 80.53%. The tertiary structure of the constructed vaccine was optimized, and its stability was confirmed with the help of molecular simulation. Molecular docking was performed to check the binding affinity and binding energy of the constructed vaccine with TLR-3 and TLR-5. Codon optimization was performed in the constructed vaccine within the Escherichia coli K12 strain, to eliminate the danger of codon bias. However, these findings must require further validation to assess their effectiveness and safety. The development of vaccines and therapeutic approaches for virus infection is an ongoing area of research, and it may take time before effective interventions are available for clinical use.
  2. Malik A, Hussain M, Uddin F, Raza W, Hussain S, Habiba UE, et al.
    Water Environ Res, 2021 Sep 27.
    PMID: 34570384 DOI: 10.1002/wer.1639
    In this current work, the performance of an aerobic granular sludge (AGS) for real textile wastewater was investigated based on system operational parameters evaluation. The study was performed for 90 days, and sampling was done once a week in which textile dyeing effluent from the textile mill was collected and subjected to laboratory-scale treatment. The samples from the inlet, the outlet of the wastewater plant, and within the bioreactor were collected at various concentrations of MLSS, and hydraulic retention remained the same in the investigated period of 53 hours. The objective of this study was to analyze the AGS system performance assessment by evaluating the effect of different MLSS concentrations on chemical oxygen demand (COD), TSS, and oil/grease removal from real-based textile water. The results showed that removal of organic material from the process water increases with an increase in MLSS concentration in the bioreactor and gradually shifts removal of COD from 91.2% to 94.5%. As the concentration of microorganisms in the reactor (aeration tank) increases, the degradation of waste organics in the wastewater increases as well. Moreover, the % removal of total suspended solids (83.5 to 98 %) and removal of oil/grease (62.5 to 76.4%) were also increased. These results ultimately suggest that the utilization of an activated sludge system can effectively treat complex and highly polluted denim textile wastewater to avoid secondary pollution posed by this industry.
  3. Roy P, Abdulsalam FI, Pandey DK, Bhattacharjee A, Eruvaram NR, Malik T
    Pharmacognosy Res, 2015 Jun;7(Suppl 1):S57-62.
    PMID: 26109789 DOI: 10.4103/0974-8490.157997
    Swertia cordata and Swertia chirayita are temperate Himalayan medicinal plants used as potent herbal drugs in Indian traditional systems of medicine (Ayurvedic, Unani and Siddha).
  4. Bhagat SK, Tiyasha T, Kumar A, Malik T, Jawad AH, Khedher KM, et al.
    J Environ Manage, 2022 Feb 16;309:114711.
    PMID: 35182982 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114711
    Heavy metals (HMs) such as Lead (Pb) have played a vital role in increasing the sediments of the Australian bay's ecosystem. Several meteorological parameters (i.e., minimum, maximum and average temperature (Tmin, Tmax and TavgoC), rainfall (Rn mm) and their interactions with the other batch HMs, are hypothesized to have high impact for the decision-making strategies to minimize the impacts of Pb. Three feature selection (FS) algorithms namely the Boruta method, genetic algorithm (GA) and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) were investigated to select the highly important predictors for Pb concentration in the coastal bay sediments of Australia. These FS algorithms were statistically evaluated using principal component analysis (PCA) Biplot along with the correlation metrics describing the statistical characteristics that exist in the input and output parameter space of the models. To ensure a high accuracy attained by the applied predictive artificial intelligence (AI) models i.e., XGBoost, support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF), an auto-hyper-parameter tuning process using a Grid-search approach was also implemented. Cu, Ni, Ce, and Fe were selected by all the three applied FS algorithms whereas the Tavg and Rn inputs remained the essential parameters identified by GA and Boruta. The order of the FS outcome was XGBoost > GA > Boruta based on the applied statistical examination and the PCA Biplot results and the order of applied AI predictive models was XGBoost-SVM > GA-SVM > Boruta-SVM, where the SVM model remained at the top performance among the other statistical metrics. Based on the Taylor diagram for model evaluation, the RF model was reflected only marginally different so overall, the proposed integrative AI model provided an evidence a robust and reliable predictive technique used for coastal sediment Pb prediction.
  5. Alotaibi MA, Malik T, Naeem A, Khan AS, Ud Din I, Shaharun MS
    Heliyon, 2024 Nov 30;10(22):e40521.
    PMID: 39641067 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40521
    Deep eutectic solvents are a novel class of solvents that have gained much attention with time due to their biodegradability, non-volatility, non-toxicity and low-cost. In this work, a novel ternary deep eutectic solvent (TDES) was synthesized using ethaline (ChCl:EG) and glycine, with the addition of carboxylic acids. The synthesized material was characterized through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). While the thermal stability and physical properties such as density, viscosity, surface tension and refractive index were also determined). To estimate the critical properties, modified version of Lyderson-Joback-Reid (LJR) and Lee-Kesler mixing (Alkhatib et al., 2020) [1] methods were used. The density of the DES was calculated using the Spencer and Danner correlation and the obtained values were compared with experimental data. FTIR analysis confirmed that hydrogen bonding is the main driving force responsible for the formation of the deep eutectic solvents. The physical properties of the binary DES system, such as viscosity, density,and thermal stability of the system were enhanced after the incorporation of a third component (carboxylic acid) to the system. However, the surface tension of the TDES system decrease with the increasing amounts of the third component, likely due to increase in the void radius of the TDES. Thus investigation is considering as novel work to check the influence of carboxylic acids on the physical properties of binary deep eutectic solvent systems.
  6. Butt MD, Ong SC, Rafiq A, Malik T, Sajjad A, Batool N, et al.
    Sci Rep, 2023 Dec 27;13(1):23037.
    PMID: 38155289 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-50517-2
    In 2021, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reported that the prevalence of diabetes in Pakistan was 9.6%, higher than the global average. However, adherence to treatment guidelines, e.g., American Diabetes Association and Pakistan Endocrine Society and prescription patterns for Oral anti-diabetes (OAD), is poorly understood in Pakistan. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prescribing practices of anti-diabetic medications, an association of lifestyle modification with drugs prescribed, and their effectiveness in preserving ideal glycemic levels in diabetic patients undergoing treatment in tertiary care teaching hospitals in rural and urban Pakistan. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from prescriptions of outpatient diabetic patients from different rural and urban tertiary care hospitals between October 2021 and February 2022. 388 participants were enrolled in the study for a detailed interview on prescription evaluation and glycemic control. The coinvestigators conducted an interview with the patient and used a pre-validated questionnaire to collect the data. The relationship between following treatment guidelines and clinical and demographic factors was found using chi-square tests for bivariate analyses. The study reported that out of 388, the mean ages of the patients were 48 ± 12.4, and the majority were female. It was observed that 60.1% and 66.5% have uncontrolled fasting and random blood glucose, respectively. The education level of the study participants was also below par to have a complete understanding of the medical condition and self-management therapy. Even though they were taking the right medications-an average prescription regimen included 5.08 medications-52.1% of the studied people had glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels higher than the therapeutic threshold set by the International Diabetes Federation. In this modern era, it was observed that the prescribing trend was still focused on traditional therapeutic options Biguanides, sulfonylureas, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors were prescribed in 64.6% of the patients. A significant association was found between glycemic control and body mass index, adherence to lifestyle modifications, and the number of medications prescribed (p-value 
  7. Qureshi S, Iqbal M, Rafiq A, Ahmed H, Malik T, Kalam MN, et al.
    AIMS Public Health, 2023;10(3):553-567.
    PMID: 37842276 DOI: 10.3934/publichealth.2023039
    BACKGROUND: Childhood malnutrition remains a significant public health problem impacting the physical and mental growth if school aged children, particularly in limited-resource countries.

    OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to assess levels of physical activity, patterns of screen time (S.T.), the relationship between physical activity and screen time patterns, and how these factors affect growth status (adjusting for socioeconomic status).

    METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study included 3,834 children between 6-14 years attending pre-selected schools. Teachers, students, and parents were invited to fill out a standardized questionnaire, and Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated using Center for disease control (CDC) centile charts. A Chi-square was performed to see the possible association between any height and weight abnormalities and all possible risk factors. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to see the effect of variables significantly associated with univariate analysis.

    RESULTS: Approximately 2,447 (63.8%) children were between 11-14 years old and 1,387 (36.2%) were between 4-10 years old. The mean height was 143.71 ± 16.51 centimetres, the mean weight was 36.5 ± 12.9 kilogram, and the mean BMI was 17.16 ± 3.52. Multivariate logistic regression status and junk food combined affected stunting socioeconomic status was significantly associated with being underweight p = 0.001.

    CONCLUSION: Childhood obesity and stunting remain significant problems in Pakistani school-going children. These are significantly associated with poverty, a lack of physical activity opportunities, and available food quality.

  8. Butt MD, Ong SC, Rafiq A, Kalam MN, Sajjad A, Abdullah M, et al.
    J Pharm Policy Pract, 2024;17(1):2322107.
    PMID: 38650677 DOI: 10.1080/20523211.2024.2322107
    INTRODUCTION: Diabetes increases preventative sickness and costs healthcare and productivity. Type 2 diabetes and macrovascular disease consequences cause most diabetes-related costs. Type 2 diabetes greatly costs healthcare institutions, reducing economic productivity and efficiency. This cost of illness (COI) analysis examines the direct and indirect costs of treating and managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

    METHODOLOGY: According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, Cochrane, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Medline Plus, and CENTRAL were searched for relevant articles on type 1 and type 2 diabetes illness costs. The inquiry returned 873 2011-2023 academic articles. The study included 42 papers after an abstract evaluation of 547 papers.

    RESULTS: Most articles originated in Asia and Europe, primarily on type 2 diabetes. The annual cost per patient ranged from USD87 to USD9,581. Prevalence-based cost estimates ranged from less than USD470 to more than USD3475, whereas annual pharmaceutical prices ranged from USD40 to more than USD450, with insulin exhibiting the greatest disparity. Care for complications was generally costly, although costs varied significantly by country and problem type.

    DISCUSSION: This study revealed substantial heterogeneity in diabetes treatment costs; some could be reduced by improving data collection, analysis, and reporting procedures. Diabetes is an expensive disease to treat in low- and middle-income countries, and attaining Universal Health Coverage should be a priority for the global health community.

  9. GBD 2023 LDL Cholesterol Collaborators, Razo C, DeCleene NK, Johnson CO, Stark BA, LeGrand K, et al.
    JAMA, 2026 Aug 25;336(8):673-698.
    PMID: 42525403 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2026.8628
    IMPORTANCE: Elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of premature death worldwide. Assessing the LDL-C-related burden is critical for guiding prevention and treatment strategies.

    OBJECTIVES: To estimate the global, regional, and national burden of ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke attributable to elevated LDL-C (relative to 35-54 mg/dL) from 1990 to 2023 and to quantify the contributions of population growth, aging, risk-deleted burden, and exposure changes to burden trends.

    DESIGN, SETTING, AND POPULATION: This comparative risk assessment, part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023, estimated population-level LDL-C exposure and associated health loss in 204 countries and territories. Mean LDL-C levels were estimated using spatiotemporal gaussian process regression based on 806 studies across 161 countries. Relative risks were derived from meta-analyses of 38 randomized clinical trials. Population-attributable fractions for deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were estimated by age and sex for adults aged 25 years or older from 1990 to 2023, with 95% uncertainty intervals.

    EXPOSURE: Population-level LDL-C concentrations.

    MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Population-attributable fractions, counts, and rates (all ages and age standardized per 100 000) of LDL-C-attributable deaths and DALYs from ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke, with uncertainty intervals.

    RESULTS: In 2023, elevated LDL-C accounted for 3.6 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval, 2.2-5.4 million; 6.0% of global mortality) and 90.7 million DALYs (95% uncertainty interval, 58.9-123.3 million; 3.2% of DALYs). Although global all-ages rates remained stable, age-standardized death and DALY rates decreased by 45.6% and 39.5%, respectively, since 1990. In 2023, age-standardized LDL-C-attributable DALY rates were highest in Eastern Europe and lowest in high-income Asia-Pacific. One-third of the global LDL-C burden occurred in India and China. Population growth and aging drove the increasing burden, with notable regional disparities in LDL-C exposure and risk-deleted DALY rates shifting toward middle-sociodemographic settings.

    CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Despite declining age-standardized rates, the absolute LDL-C burden has increased since 1990 due to demographic changes and has shifted toward middle-sociodemographic countries. Measurement and surveillance gaps persist. Strengthened prevention, diagnosis, and treatment access strategies are essential to mitigate the health burden of LDL-C.

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