MyMedR

Uncovering the complex role of interferon-gamma in suppressing type 2 immunity to cancer

Bhat AA, Goyal A, Thapa R, Almalki WH, Kazmi I, Alzarea SI, et al.

Cytokine, 2023 Nov;171:156376.

PMID: 37748333 DOI: 10.1016/j.cyto.2023.156376

Cancer involves cells' abnormal growth and ability to invade or metastasize to different body parts. Cancerous cells can divide uncontrollably and spread to other areas through the lymphatic or circulatory systems. Tumors form when malignant cells clump together in an uncontrolled manner. In this context, the cytokine interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) is crucial in regulating immunological responses, particularly malignancy. While IFN-γ is well-known for its potent anti-tumor effects by activating type 1 immunity, recent research has revealed its ability to suppress type 2 immunity, associated with allergy and inflammatory responses. This review aims to elucidate the intricate function of IFN-γ in inhibiting type 2 immune responses to cancer. We explore how IFN-γ influences the development and function of immune cells involved in type 2 immunity, such as mast cells, eosinophils, and T-helper 2 (Th2) cells. Additionally, we investigate the impact of IFN-mediated reduction of type 2 immunity on tumor development, metastasis, and the response to immunotherapeutic interventions. To develop successful cancer immunotherapies, it is crucial to comprehend the complex interplay between type 2 and type 1 immune response and the regulatory role of IFN-γ. This understanding holds tremendous promise for the development of innovative treatment approaches that harness the abilities of both immune response types to combat cancer. However, unraveling the intricate interplay between IFN-γ and type 2 immunity in the tumor microenvironment will be essential for achieving this goal.

Fulltext Therapeutic Potential of Phytoconstituents in Management of Alzheimer's Disease

Singh AK, Rai SN, Maurya A, Mishra G, Awasthi R, Shakya A, et al.

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2021;2021:5578574.

PMID: 34211570 DOI: 10.1155/2021/5578574

Since primitive times, herbs have been extensively used in conventional remedies for boosting cognitive impairment and age-associated memory loss. It is mentioned that medicinal plants have a variety of dynamic components, and they have become a prominent choice for synthetic medications for the care of cognitive and associated disorders. Herbal remedies have played a major role in the progression of medicine, and many advanced drugs have already been developed. Many studies have endorsed practicing herbal remedies with phytoconstituents, for healing Alzheimer's disease (AD). All the information in this article was collated from selected research papers from online scientific databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. The aim of this article is to convey the potential of herbal remedies for the prospect management of Alzheimer's and related diseases. Herbal remedies may be useful in the discovery and advancement of drugs, thus extending new leads for neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. Nanocarriers play a significant role in delivering herbal medicaments to a specific target. Therefore, many drugs have been described for the management of age-linked complaints such as dementia, AD, and the like. Several phytochemicals are capable of managing AD, but their therapeutic claims are restricted due to their lower solubility and metabolism. These limitations of natural therapeutics can be overcome by using a targeted nanocarrier system. This article will provide the primitive remedies as well as the development of herbal remedies for AD management.

The first isolate of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in Malaysia

Cheong YM, Jegathesan M, Singh M, Wong S, Ong L

Malays J Pathol, 1985 Aug;7:51-2.

PMID: 3939616

Fulltext The differential expression of aqueous soluble proteins in breast normal and cancerous tissues in relation to stage and grade of patients

Liang S, Singh M, Gam LH

J Biomed Biotechnol, 2010;2010:516469.

PMID: 21197096 DOI: 10.1155/2010/516469

Breast cancer is a leading cause of female deaths worldwide. In Malaysia, it is the most common form of female cancer while Infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) is the most common form of breast cancer. A proteomic approach was used to identify changes in the protein profile of breast cancerous and normal tissues. The patients were divided into different cohorts according to tumour stage and grade. We identified twenty-four differentially expressed hydrophilic proteins. A few proteins were found significantly related to various stages and grades of IDC, amongst which were SEC13-like 1 (isoform b), calreticulin, 14-3-3 protein zeta, and 14-3-3 protein eta. In this study, we found that by defining the expression of the proteins according to stages and grades of IDC, a significant relationship between the expression of the proteins with the stage or grade of IDC can be established, which increases the usefulness of these proteins as biomarkers for IDC.

Fulltext The differential expression of aqueous soluble proteins in breast normal and cancerous tissues in relation to ethnicity of the patients; Chinese, Malay and Indian

Liang S, Singh M, Gam LH

Dis Markers, 2010;28(3):149-65.

PMID: 20534901 DOI: 10.3233/DMA-2010-0694

Female breast cancer is one of the leading causes of female mortality worldwide. In Malaysia, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Of the women in Malaysia, the Chinese have the highest number of breast cancer cases, followed by the Indian and the Malay. The most common type of breast cancer is infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC). A proteomic approach was applied in this study to identify changes in the protein profile of cancerous tissues compared with normal tissues from 18 patients; 8 Chinese, 6 Malay and 4 Indian were analysed. Twenty-four differentially expressed hydrophilic proteins were identified. We evaluated the potential of these proteins as biomarkers for infiltrating ductal carcinoma based on their ethnic-specific expressions. Three of the upregulated proteins, calreticulin, 14-3-3 protein zeta and 14-3-3 protein eta, were found to be expressed at a significantly higher level in the cancerous breast tissues when compared with the normal tissues in cases of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. The upregulation in expression was particularly dominant in the Malay cohort.

Fulltext The PCA and LDA analysis on the differential expression of proteins in breast cancer

Liang S, Singh M, Dharmaraj S, Gam LH

Dis Markers, 2010;29(5):231-42.

PMID: 21206008 DOI: 10.3233/DMA-2010-0753

Breast cancer is a leading cause of mortality in women. In Malaysia, it is the most common cancer to affect women. The most common form of breast cancer is infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC). A proteomic approach was undertaken to identify protein profile changes between cancerous and normal breast tissues from 18 patients. Two protein extracts; aqueous soluble and membrane associated protein extracts were studied. Thirty four differentially expressed proteins were identified. The intensities of the proteins were used as variables in PCA and reduced data of six principal components (PC) were subjected to LDA in order to evaluate the potential of these proteins as collective biomarkers for breast cancer. The protein intensities of SEC13-like 1 (isoform b) and calreticulin contributed the most to the first PC while the protein intensities of fibrinogen beta chain precursor and ATP synthase D chain contributed the most to the second PC. Transthyretin precursor and apolipoprotein A-1 precursor contributed the most to the third PC. The results of LDA indicated good classification of samples into normal and cancerous types when the first 6 PCs were used as the variables. The percentage of correct classification was 91.7% for the originally grouped tissue samples and 88.9% for cross-validated samples.

Surgery of aphakic retinal detachment

Singh M

Br J Ophthalmol, 1988 Nov;72(11):820-2.

PMID: 3207656

In a prospective study 84 patients with aphakic retinal detachment were treated either by local scleral buckling alone or combined with an encirclement. The rate of surgical reattachment of the retina was found to be similar with either technique over a minimum follow-up period of one year. Simplicity and a low incidence of serious complications of the local procedure merit its application as the initial method of repairing aphakic detachments.

Fulltext Supplementing hand washing with proper use of alcoholic hand rub in a special neonatal care unit in a large academic public health institute at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

Singh M, Agrawal A, Sisodia D, Kasar PK, Kaur A, Datta V, et al.

BMJ Open Qual, 2021 11;10(4).

PMID: 34759034 DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001131

OBJECTIVE: The purpose was to increase use of alcoholic hand rub (AHR) in specialised newborn care unit (SNCU) to improve hand hygiene in order to reduce neonatal sepsis and mortality at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College and Hospital, Jabalpur.

DESIGN: A prospective interventional and observational study.

METHODOLOGY: We formed a quality improvement (QI) team in our SNCU consisting of doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff and parents (a floating member) to improve proper use of AHR. To identify the barriers to the problem, we used fishbone analysis tool. The barriers which were not allowing the health providers to use AHR properly identified were amount of AHR in millilitres to be used per day per baby, how much and when the amount of AHR to be indented from the main store and what is the proper site to place the bottle. We used plan-do-study-act cycles to test and adapt solutions to these problems. Within 5-6 weeks of starting our project, AHR use increased from 44 mL to 92 mL per baby per day and this is sustained around 100 mL per baby per day for over 2 years now.

RESULTS: Significant decrease in neonatal mortality was observed (reduced from median of 41.0 between August 2016 and April 2018 to 24.0 between May 2018 and December 2019). The neonates discharged alive improved from 41.2 to 52.3 as a median percentage value. The percentage of babies who were referred out and went Left Against Medical Advice (LAMA) deceased too.

CONCLUSION: Multiple factors can lead to neonatal deaths, but the important factors are always contextual to facilities. QI methodology provides health workers with the skills to identify the major factors contributing to mortality and develop strategies to deal with them. Improving processes of care can lead to improved hand hygiene and saves lives.

Studies on the Malayan forest rat filaria, Breinlia booliati: periodicity and microfilaraemic patterns during the course of infection

Yap EH, Ho BC, Singh M, Kang KL, Lim BL

J Helminthol, 1975 Dec;49(4):263-9.

PMID: 1206216

Breinlia booliati exhibited nocturnal subperiodicity in its natural host, Rattus sabanus in contrast to experimentally infected laboratory-reared albine rats which showed irregular fluctuations of microfilariae throughout the 24 hour cycle. All the infected albino rats showed a prepatent period between 11-14 weeks postinoculation. Three patterns of microfilaraemia were discerned during the course of infection 38/49 rats displayed a single peak, 4/49 displayed 2 peaks about 12-15 weeks apart and 7/49 showed a sustained high plateau-like pattern of microfilaraemia. Cortisone had no effect on microfilarial levels when administered to rats near postpatency and some at postpatency.

Studies on the Malayan forest rat filaria, Breinlia booliati (Filarioidea: Onchocercidae): transmission to laboratory rats

Ho BC, Singh M, Yap EH, Lim BL

Int J Parasitol, 1976 Apr;6(2):113-6.

PMID: 1262122

Studies on the Malayan forest rat filaria, Breinlia booliati (Filarioidea: Onchocercidae): course of development in rat host

Singh M, Yap EH, Ho BC, Kang KL, Lim PC

J Helminthol, 1976 Jun;50(2):103-10.

PMID: 965704

The development of Breinlia booliati is described in its natural host, Rattus sabanus and in an inbred strain of laboratory albino rat. The growth of the parasite is similar in both the rat hosts. The third moult occurs between six-eight days and the final moult between 24-28 days. Larvae were recovered initially from the skin and carcass. After five weeks, developing stages were seen only in the thoracic and abdominal cavities, the site of development of the adult worms. Worms became sexually mature by 11-12 weeks and there was considerable growth in length of the female worms after this stage.

Studies on human filariasis in Malaysia: the application of an indirect hemagglutination technique for immunodiagnosis

Singh M, Mackinlay LM, Kane GJ, Mak JW, Yap EH, Ho BC, et al.

Am J Trop Med Hyg, 1980 Jul;29(4):548-52.

PMID: 6996501

The indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test done with turkey red cells was applied to 173 serum samples obtained from patients and persons exposed to Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi in endemic areas of Peninsular Malaysia. A crude extract of adult worms of the rat filaria, Breinlia booliati, was used as the antigen. When a titer of 1:16 was taken as negative, positive IHA test rates in sera from microfilaria-negative persons in endemic areas, microfilaremic cases, and patients with clinical filariasis were 13%, 75%, and 80%, respectively. Results of the IHA test correlated well with results obtained with the indirect fluorescent technique.

Studies on human filariasis in Malaysia: immunoglobulin and complement levels in persons infected with Brugia malayi and Wuchereria bancrofti

Joon-Wah M, Singh M, Yap EH, Ho BC, Kang KL

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1979;73(4):395-9.

PMID: 400204

Levels of immunoglobulins G, A, M and E as well as complement components C3c and C4 have been determined in populations in various endemic areas in Peninsular Malaysia and also in filariasis patients. High immunoglobulin levels were seen. In the microfilarial-negative group IgG was 2009 mg% while IgE was 3967 I.U./ml. In the filariasis group, Wuchereria bancrofti patients had significantly higher levels of IgG, IgM and IgE, namely, 3314 mg%, 804 mg% and 18400 I.U./ml respectively. The significance of these levels is discussed.

Studies on human filariasis in Malaysia: immunodiagnosis using indirect immunofluorescence

Singh M, Kane GJ, Yap EH, Ho BC, Mak JW, Kang KL

Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health, 1979 Dec;10(4):486-97.

PMID: 395664

The indirect immunofluorescence test using sonicated microfilariae of Brugia malayi has been evaluated on 173 sera from patients and persons exposed to Wuchereria bancrofti and B. malayi in endemic areas of Peninsular Malaysia. In the microfilaria-negative group, without signs and symptoms of filariasis 55/62 sera (89%) had titers of 1:16 and less. In the microfilaremic groups and in the amicrofilaremic cases with clinical filariasis, all the sera tested were positive, with the antibody titers ranging generally from 1:16 - 1:256. Cross-reaction tests were done on 16 samples of onchocerciasis sera from West Africa using sonicated antigen as well as antigen-coated CNB1-activated sepharose. Antibody titers were detected in all the sera. The usefulness of the sonicated microfilarial antigen in serodiagnosis of filariasis is discussed.

Fulltext Stochastic Leader Gravitational Search Algorithm for Enhanced Adaptive Beamforming Technique

Darzi S, Islam MT, Tiong SK, Kibria S, Singh M

PLoS One, 2015;10(11):e0140526.

PMID: 26552032 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140526

In this paper, stochastic leader gravitational search algorithm (SL-GSA) based on randomized k is proposed. Standard GSA (SGSA) utilizes the best agents without any randomization, thus it is more prone to converge at suboptimal results. Initially, the new approach randomly choses k agents from the set of all agents to improve the global search ability. Gradually, the set of agents is reduced by eliminating the agents with the poorest performances to allow rapid convergence. The performance of the SL-GSA was analyzed for six well-known benchmark functions, and the results are compared with SGSA and some of its variants. Furthermore, the SL-GSA is applied to minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamforming technique to ensure compatibility with real world optimization problems. The proposed algorithm demonstrates superior convergence rate and quality of solution for both real world problems and benchmark functions compared to original algorithm and other recent variants of SGSA.

Specimen shrinkage and its influence on margin assessment in breast cancer

Yeap BH, Muniandy S, Lee SK, Sabaratnam S, Singh M

Asian J Surg, 2007 Jul;30(3):183-7.

PMID: 17638637

The determination of tumour-free margin in breast cancer is crucial in deciding subsequent patient management. To exemplify the phenomenon of margin contraction during specimen preparation for histopathological analysis, we quantified the shrinkage of breast specimens as a result of formalin fixation.

Fulltext Soil-transmitted helminthiasis among children in Pulau Ketam, West Malaysia

Kan SP, Singh M, Singh S

Med J Malaysia, 1987 Mar;42(1):40-3.

PMID: 3431501

Only 8.4% of 1,286 Chinese boys and girls from the ages of 5-12 years in Pulau Ketam were infected with soil-transmitted helminths. The majority of these children had single infections with Trichuris or Ascaris alone. Mixed infections made up less than 5% of all infected cases. The worm burdens of infected children were very low. There was no definite pattern of distribution of infection among children of different ages and no differences in the distribution of infection between boys and girls. The main factors for the low prevalence and intensity of infection were the absence of suitable soil for the development and survival of infective helminth stages and the lack of contact with contaminated soil on this island. These two factors acted as very effective barriers to the transmission of soiltransmitted helminths on Pulau Ketam.

Significance of intraocular lens power calculation

Singh M, Dahalan A

Br J Ophthalmol, 1987 Nov;71(11):850-3.

PMID: 3689737

A total of 94 patients underwent extracapsular cataract extraction and insertion of Sinsky style two-loop posterior chamber intraocular lenses. Forty-six eyes received a standard power IOL and 48 eyes were given a preoperatively calculated IOL. A significant difference was found in the two groups with regard to the postoperative refractive error and uncorrected visual acuity.

Fulltext SenseCrypt: A Security Framework for Mobile Crowd Sensing Applications

Pius Owoh N, Mahinderjit Singh M

Sensors (Basel), 2020 Jun 09;20(11).

PMID: 32526843 DOI: 10.3390/s20113280

The proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets with embedded sensors and communication features has led to the introduction of a novel sensing paradigm called mobile crowd sensing. Despite its opportunities and advantages over traditional wireless sensor networks, mobile crowd sensing still faces security and privacy issues, among other challenges. Specifically, the security and privacy of sensitive location information of users remain lingering issues, considering the "on" and "off" state of global positioning system sensor in smartphones. To address this problem, this paper proposes "SenseCrypt", a framework that automatically annotates and signcrypts sensitive location information of mobile crowd sensing users. The framework relies on K-means algorithm and a certificateless aggregate signcryption scheme (CLASC). It incorporates spatial coding as the data compression technique and message query telemetry transport as the messaging protocol. Results presented in this paper show that the proposed framework incurs low computational cost and communication overhead. Also, the framework is robust against privileged insider attack, replay and forgery attacks. Confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation are security services offered by the proposed framework.

Reye and Reye-like syndromes: results of a pilot study in Peninsular Malaya, 1986

Sinniah D, Sinniah R, Yap YF, Singh M, George R, Lim NL, et al.

Acta Paediatr Jpn, 1990 Aug;32(4):385-90.

PMID: 2288220

A pilot epidemiologic study of all cases of Reye and Reye-like syndromes was undertaken at 8 representative major hospitals in Peninsular Malaya from January 1st to December 31st 1986. The cases were classified as definitive Reye's syndrome, clinical Reye's syndrome and encephalo-hepatopathies. Less than 50% of cases reviewed fulfilled the National Center for Disease Control criteria for clinical Reye's syndrome. Causes of Reye-like syndromes/encephalo-hepatopathies included fulminant hepatitis, Japanese B encephalitis, dengue, septicaemia, and complex febrile fits. It was not possible to differentiate clinical Reye's syndrome from the other encephalo-hepatopathies by either the clinical features (except for jaundice) or biochemical parameters. Liver biopsy is necessary for a definitive diagnosis of Reye's syndrome in Malaysia, because of the high prevalence of Reye-like diseases. The mortality rate in the 2 groups of patients is similar. Ingestion of salicylates was not found to be significantly associated with Reye and Reye-like syndromes in this study.

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