Displaying publications 201 - 220 of 264 in total

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  1. Mohtar M, Johari SA, Li AR, Isa MM, Mustafa S, Ali AM, et al.
    Curr Microbiol, 2009 Aug;59(2):181-6.
    PMID: 19475447 DOI: 10.1007/s00284-009-9416-9
    Increased prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a major threat to the health sector worldwide due to their virulence, limited therapeutic options and their distribution in both hospital and community settings. Discovery and development of new anti-MRSA agents as alternatives to the very few antibiotics left in the armamentarium are, thus, urgently required. Recently, an efflux mechanism in MRSA has been identified as one of the main contributors of resistance towards various structurally unrelated antibiotics. The potential of reserpine (a phytoalkaloid) as efflux pump inhibitor (EPI) against various microbes remains limited as the concentration needed for inhibition is toxic to humans. This study therefore aimed to evaluate 13 alkaloid compounds as potential inhibitory agents and/or potential EPIs against a panel of three MRSA isolates which not only differ in their susceptibility to vancomycin (amongst the last drugs available to treat serious MRSA infection), but also exhibited active efflux activity. Results indicated berberine's moderate inhibitiory activity against two MRSA isolates scoring a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 125 microg/ml. Notable efflux inhibitory activity (ranging from two- to eightfold Ethidium Bromide MIC reduction) meanwhile was detected from quinine, piperine and harmaline using reserpine as the positive control. Findings from this study support the opinion that a vast number of potential phytocompounds with pharmacological potential await discovery. Therapeutic application of these compounds, however, warrants further investigation to ascertain their pharmacodynamics and safety aspects.
  2. Rahman S, Ismail AA, Ismail SB, Naing NN, Rahman AR
    Diabetes Res Clin Pract, 2008 May;80(2):253-8.
    PMID: 18249457 DOI: 10.1016/j.diabres.2007.12.010
    Type II diabetes patients have increased risk of macrovascular complications compared with the general population. Arterial stiffness is considered as an independent predictor of macrovascular events. This study investigated arterial stiffness in newly diagnosed never treated diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) patients without any traditional cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors. After preliminary screening of 1620 individuals, 30 diabetic and 30 IGT patients were recruited and compared with age- and sex-matched 30 normoglycaemic subjects. The subjects were newly diagnosed, never treated, normotensive, non-obese, non-hyperlipidaemic and non-smoker. Haemodynamic variables, pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AI) were measured. The PWV was significantly higher in diabetic patients (10.37+/-2.64m/s vs. 8.70+/-1.29m/s; p=0.035) and was of borderline significant in IGT subjects (9.54+/-1.56m/s vs.8.70+/-1.29m/s, p=0.078) compared to normoglycaemic individuals. Augmentation index was higher of borderline significant in diabetic (134.53+/-17.32% vs. 129.17+/-11.18%, p=0.055) and IGT patients (132.02+/-16.11% vs. 129.17+/-11.18%, p=0.059) compared to normoglycaemic individuals. The study demonstrated that newly diagnosed never treated diabetic patients without any CV complications had early manifestation of macrovascular diseases as evident by increased arterial stiffness. The findings also revealed early manifestations of preclinical vasculopathy and potentially increased risk for development of macrovascular diseases at an early age in diabetic patients.
  3. Yvonne-Tee GB, Rasool AH, Halim AS, Wong AR, Rahman AR
    Clin. Hemorheol. Microcirc., 2008;38(2):119-33.
    PMID: 18198413
    Recent development had allowed non-invasive assessment of microvascular function in vivo; however, the method has not been fully optimized and standardized. In this study, we aimed to characterize the "effective" occlusion duration needed to elicit sufficient postocclusive hyperemia (PORH) responses in forearm skin using laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF), in subjects with differing age, gender and menstrual phases.
  4. Rehman A, Ismail SB, Naing L, Roshan TM, Abdul Rahman AR
    Am J Hypertens, 2007 Feb;20(2):184-9.
    PMID: 17261465 DOI: 10.1016/j.amjhyper.2006.07.015
    BACKGROUND: Data comparing the effect of losartan and perindopril on aortic stiffness among hypertensive subjects without A(1166)C polymorphism was not available.
    METHODS: The short-term and long-term effects of losartan (50 mg) and perindopril (4 mg) on aortic stiffness measured as carotid femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) were compared in 39 middle-aged Malay subjects with mild-to-moderate hypertension in a 4-month, double-blind, randomized, controlled, parallel-design study.
    RESULTS: Four-month treatment with both drugs showed a significant reduction in blood pressure (BP) (P < .005) and PWV (P < .05) as compared to the baseline. On the other hand 1-month treatment showed a significant reduction in BP only in perindopril group (P < .05) but not in the losartan group. There was no significant reduction in pulse pressure and PWV after 1 month treatment by both drugs. No significant difference was seen in reduction in BP after 1 month and 4 months treatment between the two drugs. Similarly no significant difference was seen in reduction in PWV between the two drugs after 1 month (P = .613) and 4 months (P = .521) of treatment. Reduction in PWV by losartan (r = 0.470) and perindopril (r = 0.457) correlated significantly only with reduction in DBP (P < .05) and remained significant even after controlling for reduction in DBP (P < .05). Reduction in PWV by both losartan and perindopril was independent of reduction in BP by these drugs.
    CONCLUSIONS: These results showed that long-term treatment with losartan shows similar pressure independent reduction in PWV as perindopril among Malay hypertensive subjects with a homogenous "AA" genotype for angiotensin II type 1 receptor and may serve as a suitable alternative to perindopril.
  5. Yvonne-Tee GB, Rasool AH, Halim AS, Rahman AR
    Clin. Hemorheol. Microcirc., 2006;34(4):457-73.
    PMID: 16687786
    Given that functional abnormalities of the microcirculation are one of the primary abnormalities in cardiovascular disease pathogenesis, various noninvasive clinical tools have been developed recently to assess the microvascular function, particularly at the skin. The common techniques used to assess cutaneous microvascular function in vivo include capillaroscopy, venous occlusion plethysmography, and laser-Doppler instruments (laser-Doppler fluximetry and laser-Doppler imaging). These noninvasive techniques can be used as an early measure of functional abnormalities within the microvascular tree, predominantly in population at high risk for cardiovascular events. This review discusses some underlying application principle of these techniques, including its clinical significance, method reproducibility and limitations.
  6. Yvonne-Tee GB, Rasool AH, Halim AS, Rahman AR
    J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods, 2005 Sep-Oct;52(2):286-92.
    PMID: 16125628
    Postocclusive reactive hyperemia in forearm skin is a commonly used model for studying microvascular reactivity function, particularly in the assessment of vascular effect of topically applied pharmacological substances. In this study, we investigated the reproducibility of several different laser-Doppler-derived parameters in the measurement of postocclusive reactive hyperemia at forearm skin in healthy subjects.
  7. Tee GB, Rasool AH, Halim AS, Rahman AR
    J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods, 2004 Jul-Aug;50(1):73-8.
    PMID: 15233971 DOI: 10.1016/j.vascn.2004.02.002
    Human postocclusive forearm skin reactive hyperemia is not only a potential means of identifying early signs of cardiovascular diseases, it can also be used in the assessment of local microvascular response to topically applied compounds on skin. The method is not fully characterized. In this study, we investigated the influence of occlusion time on postocclusive forearm skin reactive hyperemia using laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF).
  8. Hassan NB, Ismail HC, Naing L, Conroy RM, Abdul Rahman AR
    Br J Clin Pharmacol, 2010 Oct;70(4):500-13.
    PMID: 20840442 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2009.03597.x
    The aims were to develop and validate a new Prescription Quality Index (PQI) for the measurement of prescription quality in chronic diseases.
  9. Ab Manan N, Jahan N, Mohamad Alwi MN, Qureshi AM, Abdul Rahman AR
    MyJurnal
    Background: Recently many medical schools have incorporated Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) as part of their undergraduate teaching. The aim is to provide a firm base of EBM to the medical students early on, so that they can understand the importance of EBM. Medical schools are encouraged to teach EBM to students but yet the education setting, learner level, modes of instruction, skills covered and teaching methods are not standardised and varies worldwide. In Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS), EBM was incorporated in the curriculum since 2009. EBM concepts was taught formally to the MBBS students during four weeks Research and Evidence Based Medicine Course (REBM). Students were exposed to the various thinking processes, formulation of clinical questions, searching evidence, intermediate biostatistics, research methodology and critical appraisal. Besides that, Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and research proposal development also include in the course. The objective of this paper is to describe
    CUCMS experience of teaching EBM for undergraduate medical students.
    Methods: This report analysed students feedback using a questionnaire which included a Likert scale and open-ended questions.
    Result: Overall, three batches of students gave positive feedbacks regarding the course with constructive suggestions on room for improvement.
    Conclusion: From our first three years’ experience in conducting the course, we concluded that the four-week EBM course offered was practical in instilling EBM principles.
  10. Kamaruddin HK, Ooi CH, Mündel T, Aziz AR, Che Muhamed AM
    Eur J Appl Physiol, 2019 Aug;119(8):1711-1723.
    PMID: 31098832 DOI: 10.1007/s00421-019-04161-2
    PURPOSE: To examine the effect of carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinsing on endurance running responses and performance in dehydrated individuals.

    METHODS: In a double blind, randomised crossover design, 12 well-trained male runners completed 4 running time to exhaustion (TTE) trials at a speed equivalent to 70% of VO2peak in a thermoneutral condition. Throughout each run, participants mouth rinsed and expectorated every 15 min either 25 mL of 6% CHO or a placebo (PLA) solution for 10 s. The four TTEs consisted of two trials in the euhydrated (EU-CHO and EU-PLA) and two trials in the dehydrated (DY-CHO and DY-PLA) state. Prior to each TTE run, participants were dehydrated via exercise and allowed a passive rest period during which they were fed and either rehydrated equivalent to their body mass deficit (i.e., EU trials) or ingested only 50 mL of water (DY trials).

    RESULTS: CHO mouth rinsing significantly improved TTE performance in the DY compared to the EU trials (78.2 ± 4.3 vs. 76.9 ± 3.8 min, P = 0.02). The arousal level of the runners was significantly higher in the DY compared to the EU trials (P = 0.02). There was no significant difference among trials in heart rate, plasma glucose and lactate, and psychological measures.

    CONCLUSIONS: CHO mouth rinsing enhanced running performance significantly more when participants were dehydrated vs. euhydrated due to the greater sensitivity of oral receptors related to thirst and central mediated activation. These results show that level of dehydration alters the effect of brain perception with presence of CHO.

  11. Anjum W, Husain AR, Abdul Aziz J, Abbasi MA, Alqaraghuli H
    PLoS One, 2020;15(2):e0228636.
    PMID: 32027697 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228636
    For closed-loop controlled DC-AC inverter system, the performance is highly influenced by load variations and online current measurement. Any variation in the load will introduce unwanted periodic error at the inverter output voltage. In addition, when the current sensor is in faulty condition, the current measurement will be imprecise and the designed feedback control law will be ineffective. In this paper, a sensorless continuous sliding mode control (SMC) scheme has been proposed to address these issues. The chattering effect due to the discontinuous switching nature of SMC has been attenuated by designing a novel boundary-based saturation function where the selection of the thickness of boundary is dependent to the PWM signal generation of the inverter. In order to remove the dependency on the current sensor, a particle swarm optimization(PSO) based modified observer is proposed to estimate the inductor current in which the observer gains are optimized using PSO by reducing the estimation errors cost function. The proposed dynamic smooth SMC algorithm has been simulated in MATLAB Simulink environment for 0.2-kVA DC-AC inverter and the results exhibit rapid dynamic response with a steady-state error of 0.4V peak-to-peak voltage under linear and nonlinear load perturbations. The total harmonic distortion (THD) is also reduced to 0.20% and 1.14% for linear and non-linear loads, respectively.
  12. Rahman S, Ismail AA, Ismail SB, Naing NN, Abdul Rahman AR
    Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 2007 Aug;63(8):733-41.
    PMID: 17565489 DOI: 10.1007/s00228-007-0315-3
    OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether pharmacological interventions with rosiglitazone/ramipril can reverse preclinical vasculopathy in newly diagnosed untreated patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).

    METHODS: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 33 T2DM and 33 IGT patients were randomised to 4 mg rosiglitazone or 5 mg ramipril or placebo for 1 year. The subjects were newly diagnosed, untreated, normotensive, nonobese, nonsmoker, and nonhyperlipidaemic. Haemodynamic variables were measured at three treatment phases and pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AI) were measured throughout the treatment period.

    RESULTS: Rosiglitazone showed a significant reduction in PWV (p=0.039) and AI (p=0.031) and ramipril demonstrated a significant reduction of AI (p=0.025) in IGT in comparison to placebo on the 12th month of treatment. No significant difference was observed in PWV and AI in T2DM with rosiglitazone/ramipril in comparison to placebo during overall treatment period.

    CONCLUSIONS: Rosiglitazone significantly reversed preclinical vasculopathy in IGT as evident by significant decrease in PWV and AI after 1 year of treatment. Ramipril also reduced large artery stiffness as shown by significant decrease of AI after 1 year of treatment in IGT. Further trials are needed for a longer period of time, maybe with higher doses, to show whether rosiglitazone/ramipril can reverse preclinical vasculopathy in T2DM.
  13. Omar NS, Kannan TP, Ismail AR, Abdullah SF, Samsudin AR, Hamid SS
    Int J Toxicol, 2011 Aug;30(4):443-51.
    PMID: 21540334 DOI: 10.1177/1091581811399474
    This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic effects of locally produced processed natural coral (PNC) using human osteoblasts (HOS). Cytotoxicity was not observed when HOS cells were cultured with PNC, as assessed by (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2-5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide; MTT) and Neutral Red (NR) assays at concentration up 200 mg/mL for up to 72 hours. Flow cytometry (FCM) analysis showed that PNC (200 mg/mL) did not decrease viability of HOS cells after 48 and 72 hours of treatment. In a cell attachment study, the HOS cells attached to the edge of the PNC disc, and later grew into the pores of the PNC disc. All results from these studies indicate that locally produced PNC material is noncytotoxic and favors the growth of HOS cells.
  14. Ibrahim NN, Rasool AH, Wong AR, Rahman AR
    Clin Chim Acta, 2009 Nov;409(1-2):62-6.
    PMID: 19723516 DOI: 10.1016/j.cca.2009.08.018
    Pulse wave analysis (PWA) combined with beta(2)-agonist challenge has recently been used to assess endothelial function. beta-2 adrenergic receptor (beta(2)AR) polymorphisms may affect response to beta(2)-agonist. We determined whether beta(2)AR polymorphisms influence endothelial response in our model using PWA and salbutamol.
  15. George Pallivathukal R, Kyaw Soe HH, Donald PM, Samson RS, Hj Ismail AR
    Cureus, 2024 Jan;16(1):e53032.
    PMID: 38410331 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.53032
    BACKGROUND: The impact of generative artificial intelligence-based Chatbots on medical education, particularly in Southeast Asia, is understudied regarding healthcare students' perceptions of its academic utility. Sociodemographic profiles and educational strategies influence prospective healthcare practitioners' attitudes toward AI tools.

    AIM AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess healthcare university students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding ChatGPT for academic purposes. It explored chatbot usage frequency, purposes, satisfaction levels, and associations between age, gender, and ChatGPT variables.

    METHODOLOGY: Four hundred forty-three undergraduate students at a Malaysian tertiary healthcare institute participated, revealing varying awareness levels of ChatGPT's academic utility. Despite concerns about accuracy, ethics, and dependency, participants generally held positive attitudes toward ChatGPT in academics.

    RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression highlighted associations between demographics, knowledge, attitude, and academic ChatGPT use. MBBS students were significantly more likely to use ChatGPT for academics than BDS and FIS students. Final-year students exhibited the highest likelihood of academic ChatGPT use. Higher knowledge and positive attitudes correlated with increased academic usage. Most users (45.8%) employed ChatGPT to aid specific assignment sections while completing most work independently. Some did not use it (41.1%), while others heavily relied on it (9.3%). Users also employed it for various purposes, from generating questions to understanding concepts. Thematic analysis of responses showed students' concerns about data accuracy, plagiarism, ethical issues, and dependency on ChatGPT for academic tasks.

    CONCLUSION: This study aids in creating guidelines for implementing GAI chatbots in healthcare education, emphasizing benefits, and risks, and informing AI developers and educators about ChatGPT's potential in academia.

  16. Kamaruddin HK, Farah NMF, Aziz AR, Mündel T, Che Muhamed AM
    Eur J Appl Physiol, 2023 Jul;123(7):1507-1518.
    PMID: 36920510 DOI: 10.1007/s00421-023-05170-y
    PURPOSE: To determine whether carbohydrate mouth rinsing would improve endurance running performance of tropical natives in a warm-humid (30 °C and 70% relative humidity) environment.

    METHOD: Twelve endurance male runners [age 25 ± 3 years; peak aerobic capacity ([Formula: see text]O2peak) 57.6 ± 3.6 mL.kg-1.min-1] completed three time-to-exhaustion (TTE) trials at ~ 70% [Formula: see text]O2peak while swilling 25 ml of a 6% carbohydrate (CHO) or taste-matched placebo (PLA) as well as no mouth rinse performed in the control (CON) trial.

    RESULTS: TTE performance was significantly longer in both CHO and PLA trials when compared with the CON trial (54.7 ± 5.4 and 53.6 ± 5.1 vs. 48.4 ± 3.6 min, respectively; p  0.05). Similarly, plasma lactate and glucose as well as exercise heart rate were not influenced by the trials.

    CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that mouth rinsing, whether carbohydrate or placebo, provides an ergogenic benefit to running endurance when compared to CON in a heat stress environment. Nevertheless, the results do not support the notion that rinsing a carbohydrate solution provides a greater advantage as previously described among non-heat acclimated individuals within a temperate condition.

  17. Rai NA, Abdul Aziz MJ, Sahid MR, Husain AR, Anjum W, Low WY
    PLoS One, 2023;18(10):e0291873.
    PMID: 37847692 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291873
    This paper proposes an average current mode controller (ACMC) for a single-phase bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) circuit using a single ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) via second-order model reduction. The superiority of the proposed controller is PFC accomplished at power up to 350 W with high efficiency via the second-order model reduction. The design and implementation of ACMC on the converter operated with continuous conduction mode (CCM) is explained in detail. ACMC forces input current to follow sinusoidal current reference at different power levels and sustain high power factor (PF). The proposed controller is designed based on the theoretical analysis operation of the circuit. For verification, MATLAB/Simulink simulations are carried out and validation through an experiment test rig for 110-220 Vrms input, 100 Vdc/ 350 W output prototype at 20 kHz switching frequency. It is proven that the proposed controller strategy accomplishes high PF, high efficiency and conformity with the simulation.
  18. Roney M, Issahaku AR, Huq AM, Soliman MES, Tajuddin SN, Aluwi MFFM
    J Biomol Struct Dyn, 2024;42(24):13564-13587.
    PMID: 37909584 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2023.2276879
    The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) dimerizes upon ligand bindings to the extracellular domain that initiates the downstream signaling cascades and activates intracellular kinase domain. Thus, activation of autophosphorylation through kinase domain results in metastasis, cell proliferation, and angiogenesis. The main objective of this research is to discover more promising anti-cancer lead compound against EGRF from the phenolic acids of marine natural products using in-silico approaches. Phenolic compounds reported from marine sources are reviewed from previous literatures. Furthermore, molecular docking was carried out using the online tool CB-Dock. The molecules with good docking and binding energies scores were subjected to ADME, toxicity and drug-likeness analysis. Subsequently, molecules from the docking experiments were also evaluated using the acute toxicity and MD simulation studies. Fourteen phenolic compounds from the reported literatures were reviewed based on the findings, isolation, characterized and applications. Molecular docking studies proved that the phenolic acids have good binding fitting by forming hydrogen bonds with amino acid residues at the binding site of EGFR. Chlorogenic acid, Chicoric acid and Rosmarinic acid showed the best binding energies score and forming hydrogen bonds with amino acid residues compare to the reference drug Erlotinib. Among these compounds, Rosmarinic acid showed the good pharmacokinetics profiles as well as acute toxicity profile. The MD simulation study further revealed that the lead complex is stable and could be future drug to treat the cancer disease. Furthermore, in a wet lab environment, both in-vitro and in-vivo testing will be employed to validate the existing computational results.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
  19. Roney M, Issahaku AR, Govinden U, Gazali AM, Aluwi MFFM, Zamri NB
    J Biomol Struct Dyn, 2024;42(24):13939-13952.
    PMID: 37942697 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2023.2279280
    To restore the integrity of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, the wound healing process involves a complex series of well-orchestrated biochemical and cellular events. Due to the existence of various active components, accessibility and few side effects, some plant extracts and their phytoconstituents are recognised as viable options for wound healing agents. To find possible inhibitors of diabetic wound healing, four main constituents of aloe vera were identified from the literature. TGF-β1 and the compounds were studied using molecular docking to see how they interacted with the active site of target protein (PDB ID: 6B8Y). The pharmacokinetics investigation of the aloe emodin with the highest dock score complied with all the Lipinski's rule of five and pharmacokinetics criteria. Conformational change in the docked complex of Aloe emodin was investigated with the Amber simulation software, via a molecular dynamic (MD) simulation. The MD simulations of aloe emodin bound to TGF-β1 showed the significant structural rotations and twists occurring from 0 to 200 ns. The estimate of the aloe emodin-TGF-β1 complex's binding free energy has also been done using MM-PBSA/GBSA techniques. Additionally, aloe emodin has a wide range of enzymatic activities since their probability active (Pa) values is >0.700. 'Aloe emodin', an active extract of aloe vera, has been identified as the key chemical in the current investigation that can inhibit diabetic wound healing. Both in-vitro and in-vivo experiments will be used in a wet lab to confirm the current computational findings.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
  20. Al-Maweri SA, Ismail NM, Ismail AR, Al-Ghashm A
    Malays J Med Sci, 2013 Jul;20(4):39-46.
    PMID: 24043995 MyJurnal
    Diabetes mellitus is associated with a greater likelihood of developing certain oral mucosal disorders. This study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions (OMLs) in patients with type 2 diabetes (DM2) and to investigate the association of such lesions with metabolic control of the disease.
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