Displaying publications 21 - 40 of 51 in total

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  1. Harun FB, Syed Sahil Jamalullail SM, Yin KB, Othman Z, Tilwari A, Balaram P
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2012;2012:439479.
    PMID: 22666123 DOI: 10.1100/2012/439479
    Eupatorium odoratum (EO) contains many biologically active compounds, the anticancer effects of which are not well documented. This study evaluates the cytotoxic effects and mechanism of action of EO extracts on MCF-7 and Vero cell lines. Evaluation of the cytotoxic activity using MTT assay, morphological alterations, and apoptosis were carried out. Autophagy was evaluated by LC3-A protein expression. Cytotoxic activity, membrane blebbing and ballooning at 24 hours, replacement by mass vacuolation, and double membrane vesicles mimicking autophagy and cell death were observed in the cancer cells. No apoptosis was observed by DNA fragmentation assay. Overexpression of LC3-A protein indicated autophagic cell death. Cell cycle analysis showed G0 and G2/M arrest. The Vero cells did not show significant cell death at concentrations <100 μg/mL. These results thus suggest that acetone and ethyl acetate extracts of EO induce cell death through induction of autophagy and hold potential for development as potential anticancer drugs.
  2. Abdullah MH, Othman Z, Noor HM, Arshad SS, Yusof AK, Jamal R, et al.
    J Cardiol, 2012 Sep;60(3):192-203.
    PMID: 22738689 DOI: 10.1016/j.jjcc.2012.05.009
    The molecular basis of coronary artery disease (CAD) has been widely studied in the western world but there is no published work on the Malaysian population. This study looked at the global gene expression profiling of the peripheral blood of patients with CAD from the 3 main ethnic groups in Malaysia. Male subjects selected were based on angiographically confirmed CAD (≥50% stenosis) and normal control subjects (0% stenosis) with age range of 55.6±5.3 and 51.0±5.5 years, respectively. The global gene expression of 12 angiographically documented CAD patients and 11 matched control subjects were performed. The combined group samples identified 6 up regulated differential expression (DE) genes (GHRL, LTA, CBS, HP, ITGA2B, and OLR1) and 12 down regulated DE genes (IL18R1, ITGA2B, IL18RAP, HP, OLR1, SOD2 ITGB3, IL1B, MMP9, PLA2G7, UTS2, and CBS) to be involved in CAD at the fold change of 1.3 with fault discovery rate (FDR) of 1%. Three genes, MMP9, IL1B, and SOD2 were down regulated in all the 3 ethnic groups making them potential biomarker candidates for CAD across all three ethnicities. Further verification in a cohort study is needed.
  3. Othman Z, Shafin N, Zakaria R, Hussain NH, Mohammad WM
    Menopause, 2011 Nov;18(11):1219-24.
    PMID: 21926932 DOI: 10.1097/gme.0b013e31821e2044
    The aim of this study was to evaluate the verbal learning and memory performance of postmenopausal women who received tualang honey (Agro Mas) in comparison with women receiving estrogen plus progestin therapy and untreated controls.
  4. Azami NA, Salleh SA, Shah SA, Neoh HM, Othman Z, Zakaria SZ, et al.
    BMC Infect Dis, 2013;13:67.
    PMID: 23379541 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2334-13-67
    In 1998, Malaysia experienced its first chikungunya virus (CHIKV) outbreak in the suburban areas followed by another two in 2006 (rural areas) and 2008 (urban areas), respectively. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of documented data regarding the magnitude of CHIKV exposure in the Malaysian population. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of chikungunya virus infection in healthy Malaysian adults residing in outbreak-free locations.
  5. Al-Rahbi B, Zakaria R, Othman Z, Hassan A, Mohd Ismail ZI, Muthuraju S
    Acta Histochem, 2014 Jan;116(1):79-88.
    PMID: 23810156 DOI: 10.1016/j.acthis.2013.05.004
    Recently, our research team has reported that Tualang honey was able to improve immediate memory in postmenopausal women comparable with that of estrogen progestin therapy. Therefore the aim of the present study was to examine the effects of Tualang honey supplement on hippocampal morphology and memory performance in ovariectomized (OVX) rats exposed to social instability stress. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups: (i) sham-operated controls, (ii) stressed sham-operated controls, (iii) OVX rats, (iv) stressed OVX rats, (v) stressed OVX rats treated with 17β-estradiol (E2), and (vi) stressed OVX rats treated with Tualang honey. These rats were subjected to social instability stress procedure followed by novel object recognition (NOR) test. Right brain hemispheres were subjected to Nissl staining. The number and arrangement of pyramidal neurons in regions of CA1, CA2, CA3 and the dentate gyrus (DG) were recorded. Two-way ANOVA analyses showed significant interactions between stress and OVX in both STM and LTM test as well as number of Nissl-positive cells in all hippocampal regions. Both E2 and Tualang honey treatments improved both short-term and long-term memory and enhanced the neuronal proliferation of hippocampal CA2, CA3 and DG regions compared to that of untreated stressed OVX rats.
  6. Eleazu C, Suleiman JB, A Othman Z, Zakaria Z, Nna VU, Mohamed M
    J Food Biochem, 2021 02;45(2):e13626.
    PMID: 33492697 DOI: 10.1111/jfbc.13626
    The effect of bee bread (BB) on the biochemical parameters-body weights, calorie intake, Lee obesity indices, serum amylase, aspartate and alanine amino transferases, skeletal muscle activities of creatine kinase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, malondialdehyde, glutathione-S-transferase, total antioxidant activity, endogenous secretory receptor for advanced glycation end products (esRAGE), and muscle histology of high-fat diet (HFD) obese rats-was studied. Thirty-six male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups: Control: received rat feed and water (1 ml/kg); HFD: received HFD and water (1 ml/kg): BB or orlistat preventive: received HFD and BB (0.5 g/kg) or HFD and orlistat (10 mg/kg; weeks 1 to 12); BB or orlistat treated: received HFD and BB (0.5 g/kg) or HFD and orlistat (10 mg/kg; weeks 6 to 12), following obesity induction. At week 12, HFD group had altered (p 
  7. Qaid E, Zakaria R, Sulaiman SF, Yusof NM, Shafin N, Othman Z, et al.
    Hum Exp Toxicol, 2017 Dec;36(12):1315-1325.
    PMID: 28111974 DOI: 10.1177/0960327116689714
    Impairment of memory is one of the most frequently reported symptoms during sudden hypoxia exposure in human. Cortical atrophy has been linked to the impaired memory function and is suggested to occur with chronic high-altitude exposure. However, the precise molecular mechanism(s) of hypoxia-induced memory impairment remains an enigma. In this work, we review hypoxia-induced learning and memory deficit in human and rat studies. Based on data from rat studies using different protocols of continuous hypoxia, we try to elicit potential mechanisms of hypobaric hypoxia-induced memory deficit.
  8. Zahari M, Sulaiman SA, Othman Z, Ayob Y, Karim FA, Jamal R
    Mediterr J Hematol Infect Dis, 2018;10(1):e2018056.
    PMID: 30210749 DOI: 10.4084/MJHID.2018.056
    Background: Haemophilia A (HA) and Haemophilia B (HB) are X-linked blood disorders that are caused by various mutations in the factor VIII (F8) and factor IX (F9) genes respectively. Identification of mutations is essential as some of the mutations are associated with the development of inhibitors. This study is the first comprehensive study of the F8 mutational profile in Malaysia.

    Materials and methods: We analysed 100 unrelated HA and 15 unrelated HB patients for genetic alterations in the F8 and F9 genes by using the long-range PCR, DNA sequencing, and the multiplex-ligation-dependent probe amplification assays. The prediction software was used to confirm the effects of these mutations on factor VIII and IX proteins.

    Results: 44 (53%) of the severe HA patients were positive for F8 intron 22 inversion, and three (3.6%) were positive for intron one inversion. There were 22 novel mutations in F8, including missense (8), frameshift (9), splice site (3), large deletion (1) and nonsense (1) mutations. In HB patients, four novel mutations were identified including the splice site (1), small deletion (1), large deletion (1) and missense (1) mutation.

    Discussion: The mutational spectrum of F8 in Malaysian patients is heterogeneous, with a slightly higher frequency of intron 22 inversion in these severe HA patients when compared to other Asian populations. Identification of these mutational profiles in F8 and F9 genes among Malaysian patients will provide a useful reference for the early detection and diagnosis of HA and HB in the Malaysian population.

  9. Jamaluddin J, Mohd Khair NK, Vinodamaney SD, Othman Z, Abubakar S
    BMC Genet, 2020 01 03;21(1):1.
    PMID: 31900126 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-019-0803-3
    BACKGROUND: C-C motif Chemokine Ligand 3 Like 1 (CCL3L1) is a multiallelic copy number variable, which plays a crucial role in immunoregulatory and hosts defense through the production of macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α. Variable range of the CCL3L1 copies from 0 to 14 copies have been documented in several different populations. However, there is still lack of report on the range of CCL3L1 copy number exclusively among Malaysians who are a multi-ethnic population. Thus, this study aims to extensively examine the distribution of CCL3L1 copy number in the three major populations from Malaysia namely Malay, Chinese and Indian. A diploid copy number of CCL3L1 for 393 Malaysians (Malay = 178, Indian = 90, and Chinese = 125) was quantified using Paralogue Ratio Tests (PRTs) and then validated with microsatellites analysis.

    RESULTS: To our knowledge, this is the first report on the CCL3L1 copy number that has been attempted among Malaysians and the Chinese ethnic group exhibits a diverse pattern of CCL3L1 distribution copy number from the Malay and Indian (p 

  10. Abdo Qaid EY, Zulkipli NN, Zakaria R, Ahmad AH, Othman Z, Muthuraju S, et al.
    Int J Neurosci, 2021 May;131(5):482-488.
    PMID: 32202188 DOI: 10.1080/00207454.2020.1746308
    Hypoxia has been associated with cognitive impairment. Many studies have investigated the role of mTOR signalling pathway in cognitive functions but its role in hypoxia-induced cognitive impairment remains controversial. This review aimed to elucidate the role of mTOR in the mechanisms of cognitive impairment that may pave the way towards the mechanistic understanding and therapeutic intervention of hypoxia-induced cognitive impairment. mTORC1 is normally regulated during mild or acute hypoxic exposure giving rise to neuroprotection, whereas it is overactivated during severe or chronic hypoxia giving rise to neuronal cells death. Thus, it is worth exploring the possibility of maintaining normal mTORC1 activity and thereby preventing cognitive impairment during severe or chronic hypoxia.
  11. Othman Z, Zakaria R, Hussain NHN, Hassan A, Shafin N, Al-Rahbi B, et al.
    Med Sci (Basel), 2015 Apr 09;3(2):3-15.
    PMID: 29083387 DOI: 10.3390/medsci3020003
    The composition and physicochemical properties of honey are variable depending on its floral source and often named according to the geographical location. The potential medicinal benefits of Tualang honey, a multifloral jungle honey found in Malaysia, have recently been attracting attention because of its reported beneficial effects in various diseases. This paper reviews the effects of honey, particularly Tualang honey, on learning and memory. Information regarding the effects of Tualang honey on learning and memory in human as well as animal models is gleaned to hypothesize its underlying mechanisms. These studies show that Tualang honey improves morphology of memory-related brain areas, reduces brain oxidative stress, increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and acetylcholine (ACh) concentrations, and reduces acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the brain homogenates. Its anti-inflammatory roles in reducing inflammatory trigger and microglial activation have yet to be investigated. It is hypothesized that the improvement in learning and memory following Tualang honey supplementation is due to the significant improvement in brain morphology and enhancement of brain cholinergic system secondary to reduction in brain oxidative damage and/or upregulation of BDNF concentration. Further studies are imperative to elucidate the molecular mechanism of actions.
  12. Shafin N, Ismail CAN, Mustafa MZ, Ghani N, Ahmad AH, Othman Z, et al.
    Mult Scler, 2022 Dec;28(14):2160-2170.
    PMID: 35164590 DOI: 10.1177/13524585221075542
    Recent interest in multiple sclerosis research warrants literature analysis to evaluate the current state of the discipline and new research domains. This bibliometric review summarised the research trends and analysed research areas in multiple sclerosis over the last decade. The documents containing the term 'multiple sclerosis' in the article title were retrieved from the Scopus database. We used Harzing's Publish or Perish and VOSviewer for citation analysis and data visualisation, respectively. We found a total of 18,003 articles published in journals in the English language between 2012 and 2021. The emerging keywords identified utilising the enhanced strategic diagram were 'covid-19', 'teriflunomide', 'clinical trial', 'microglia', 'b cells', 'myelin', 'brain', 'white matter', 'functional connectivity', 'pain', 'employment', 'health-related quality of life', 'meta-analysis' and 'comorbidity'. This study demonstrates the tremendous growth of multiple sclerosis literature worldwide, which is expected to grow more than double during the next decade especially in the identified emerging topics.
  13. Vazifehmand R, Ali DS, Othman Z, Chau DM, Stanslas J, Shafa M, et al.
    J Neurovirol, 2022 Dec;28(4-6):566-582.
    PMID: 35951174 DOI: 10.1007/s13365-022-01089-w
    Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive astrocytes brain tumor. Glioblastoma cancer stem cells and hypoxia conditions are well-known major obstacles in treatment. Studies have revealed that non-coding RNAs serve a critical role in glioblastoma progression, invasion, and resistance to chemo-radiotherapy. The present study examined the expression levels of microRNAs (in normoxic condition) and long non-coding RNAs (in normoxic and hypoxic conditions) in glioblastoma stem cells treated with the HSV-G47∆. The expression levels of 43 miRNAs and 8 lncRNAs isolated from U251-GBM-CSCs were analyzed using a miRCURY LNA custom PCR array and a quantitative PCR assay, respectively. The data revealed that out of 43 miRNAs that only were checked in normoxic condition, the only 8 miRNAs, including miR-7-1, miR-let-7b, miR-130a, miR-137, miR-200b, miR-221, miR-222, and miR-874, were markedly upregulated. The expression levels of lncRNAs, including LEF1 antisense RNA 1 (LEF1-AS1), metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 470 (LINC00470), tumor suppressor candidate 7 (TUSC7), HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR), nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1), and X inactive specific transcript (XIST), were markedly downregulated in the hypoxic microenvironment, and H19-imprinted maternally expressed transcript (H19) was not observed to be dysregulated in this environment. Under normoxic conditions, LEF1-AS1, MALAT1, LINC00470, H19, HOTAIR, NEAT1, and XIST were downregulated and TUSC7 was not targeted by HSV-G47∆. Overall, the present data shows HSVG47Δ treatment deregulates non-coding RNA expression in GBM-CSC tumor microenvironments.
  14. Zakaria WNA, Yoon SY, Wijaya A, Ahmad AH, Zakaria R, Othman Z
    Eur J Hum Genet, 2023 Oct;31(10):1181-1184.
    PMID: 37142766 DOI: 10.1038/s41431-023-01371-3
    This article seeks to highlight the most recent trends and themes in genetic counseling that are of broad interest. A total of 3505 documents were published between 1952 and 2021, with a trend toward increase in paper/year. The most common documents are original articles (2515, 71.8%), followed by review articles (341, 9.7%). Journal of Genetic Counseling publishes the highest number of genetic counseling articles (587, 16.7%), followed by Clinical Genetics (103, 2.9%) and the South American Journal of Medical Genetics (95, 2.7%). Co-occurrence analysis revealed five research themes: genetic testing, cancer, genetic counselor, prenatal diagnosis, and psychiatry. The genetic counselor theme contained most of the recent keywords, including "covid-19," "underrepresented population," "service delivery models," "workforce," "disparities," "service delivery," "professional development," "cultural competence," "access," "diversity," "telemedicine," and "health literacy." Genetic counseling researchers may use these keywords to find topics pertinent to their future research and practice.
  15. Zakaria WNA, Wijaya A, Al-Rahbi B, Ahmad AH, Zakaria R, Othman Z
    Psychiatr Genet, 2023 Jun 01;33(3):102-112.
    PMID: 36825833 DOI: 10.1097/YPG.0000000000000338
    This study aims to use a bibliometric technique to evaluate the scientific output of gene and bipolar disorder research. The search query related to gene and bipolar disorder from the Scopus database identified 1848 documents from 1951 to 2020. The growth in the publications increased since early 1990, peaked in 2011, and started to decline thereafter. High occurrence in author keywords suggests that some research topics, such as "polymorphism", "linkage" and "association study" have waned over time, whereas others, such as "DNA methylation," "circadian rhythm," "" and "meta-analysis," are now the emerging trends in gene and bipolar disorder research. The USA was the country with the highest production followed by the UK, Canada, Italy and Germany. The leading institutions were Cardiff University in the UK, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in the USA, King's College London in the UK and the University of California, San Diego in the USA. The leading journals publishing gene and bipolar literature were the American Journal of Medical Genetics Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Molecular Psychiatry and Psychiatric Genetics. The top authors in the number of publications were Craddock N, Serretti A and Rietschel M. According to the co-authorship network analysis of authors, the majority of the authors in the same clusters were closely linked together and originated from the same or neighbouring country. The findings of this study may be useful in identifying emerging topics for future research and promoting research collaboration in the field of genetic studies related to bipolar disorder.
  16. Abdul Rahman M, Sani NS, Hamdan R, Ali Othman Z, Abu Bakar A
    PLoS One, 2021;16(8):e0255312.
    PMID: 34339480 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255312
    The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an income-based poverty index which measures multiple deprivations alongside other relevant factors to determine and classify poverty. The implementation of a reliable MPI is one of the significant efforts by the Malaysian government to improve measures in alleviating poverty, in line with the recent policy for Bottom 40 Percent (B40) group. However, using this measurement, only 0.86% of Malaysians are regarded as multidimensionally poor, and this measurement was claimed to be irrelevant for Malaysia as a country that has rapid economic development. Therefore, this study proposes a B40 clustering-based K-Means with cosine similarity architecture to identify the right indicators and dimensions that will provide data driven MPI measurement. In order to evaluate the approach, this study conducted extensive experiments on the Malaysian Census dataset. A series of data preprocessing steps were implemented, including data integration, attribute generation, data filtering, data cleaning, data transformation and attribute selection. The clustering model produced eight clusters of B40 group. The study included a comprehensive clustering analysis to meaningfully understand each of the clusters. The analysis discovered seven indicators of multidimensional poverty from three dimensions encompassing education, living standard and employment. Out of the seven indicators, this study proposed six indicators to be added to the current MPI to establish a more meaningful scenario of the current poverty trend in Malaysia. The outcomes from this study may help the government in properly identifying the B40 group who suffers from financial burden, which could have been currently misclassified.
  17. Ahmad R, Azman KF, Yahaya R, Shafin N, Omar N, Ahmad AH, et al.
    AIMS Neurosci, 2023;10(1):5-32.
    PMID: 37077958 DOI: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2023002
    This review aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the research related to brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in schizophrenia and offer suggestions for further work. Based on the keywords used, our study retrieved 335 documents for further analysis using a combination of three bibliometric techniques: co-word analysis, document co-citation analysis, and bibliographic coupling. A general rising trend in the number of publications was found in BDNF and schizophrenia research. Researchers from China and the United States have mostly researched BDNF and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry is the most prestigious journal in the field of BDNF and schizophrenia research. The main topics and important research areas are cognition and the involvement of BDNF as a neurobiological marker (pathogenesis, therapy monitoring, and risk factors). Future research is anticipated to concentrate on relevant subjects, such as factors that affect BDNF levels or are connected to BDNF dysfunction in schizophrenia, as well as animal models of schizophrenia, in addition to cognition in schizophrenia.
  18. Vazifehmand R, Saeed Ali D, Monem Homaie F, Molaei Jalalvand F, Othman Z, Deming C, et al.
    PMID: 38357955 DOI: 10.2174/0115680096274769240115165344
    BACKGROUND: Due to the existence of tumor stem cells with tumorigenicity properties and resistance patterns, treatment of glioblastoma is not easy. Hypoxia is a major concern in glioblastoma therapy. Telomerase activity and telomere length alterations have been known to play a critical role in glioblastoma progression and invasion.

    OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of HSV-G47Δ oncolytic virus on telomerase and telomere length alterations in U251GBMCSCs (U251-Glioblastoma cancer stem cells) under hypoxia and normoxia conditions.

    METHODS: U251-CSCs were exposed to the HSV-G47Δ virus in optimized MOI (Multiplicity of infection= 1/14 hours). An absolute telomere length and gene expression of telomerase subunits were determined using an absolute human telomere length quantification PCR assay. Furthermore, a bioinformatics pathway analysis was carried out to evaluate physical and genetic interactions between dysregulated genes with other potential genes and pathways.

    RESULTS: Data revealed that U251CSCs had longer telomeres when exposed to HSV-G47Δ in normoxic conditions but had significantly shorter telomeres in hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, hTERC, DKC1, and TEP1 genes were significantly dysregulated in hypoxic and normoxic microenvironments. The analysis revealed that the expression of TERF2 was significantly reduced in both microenvironments, and two critical genes from the MRN complex, MER11 and RAD50, were significantly upregulated in normoxic conditions. RAD50 showed a significant downregulation pattern in the hypoxic niche. Our results suggested that repair complex in the telomeric structure could be targeted by HSV-G47Δ in both microenvironments.

    CONCLUSION: In the glioblastoma treatment strategy, telomerase and telomere complex could be potential targets for HSV-G47Δ in both microenvironments.

  19. Ghazali SM, Othman Z, Cheong KC, Hock LK, Wan Mahiyuddin WR, Kamaluddin MA, et al.
    Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2013;14(2):1141-5.
    PMID: 23621202
    Delay in seeking treatment for breast cancer is a barrier to the early diagnosis and management of the disease, resulting in a poorer prognosis. We here estimated the prevalence of delayed presentation for breast cancer and identified possible influential sociodemographic factors in a cross-sectional study of 250 patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer at the Radiotherapy and Oncology Clinic in Kuala Lumpur Hospital. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire and from medical records. We examined associations between delayed presentation (presenting to a physician more than 3 months after self-discovery of a symptom) and sociodemographic characteristics, practice of breast self examination (BSE), history of benign breast disease, family history of breast cancer and type of symptom, symptom disclosure and advice from others to seek treatment using multiple logistic regression. Time from self-discovery of symptom to presentation ranged from tghe same day to 5 years. Prevalence of delayed presentation was 33.1% (95%CI: 27.4, 39.3). A significantly higher proportion of delayers presented with late stages (stage III/IV) (58.3% vs. 26.9%, p<0.001). Divorced or widowed women (OR: 2.23, 95% CI: 1.11, 4.47) had a higher risk of delayed presentation than married women and women who never performed breast self examination were more likely to delay presentation compared to those who regularly performed BSE (OR: 2.74, 95% CI: 1.33, 5.64). Our findings indicate that delayed presentation for breast cancer symptoms among Malaysian women is high and that marital status and breast self examination play major roles in treatment-seeking for breast cancer symptoms.
  20. Yaw YH, Shariff ZM, Kandiah M, Mun CY, Yusof RM, Othman Z, et al.
    BMC Public Health, 2011;11:309.
    PMID: 21569467 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-309
    Weight gain rather than weight loss often occurs after breast cancer diagnosis despite breast cancer survivors frequently reported making healthful lifestyle changes. This study describes the prevalence and magnitude of changes in weight before and after breast cancer diagnosis and examines lifestyle behaviors of breast cancer survivors with stable weight, weight gain or weight loss.
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