Displaying publications 41 - 60 of 76 in total

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  1. Fulltext Small molecule grp94 inhibitors block dengue and Zika virus replication
    Rothan HA, Zhong Y, Sanborn MA, Teoh TC, Ruan J, Yusof R, et al.
    Antiviral Res, 2019 11;171:104590.
    PMID: 31421166 DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2019.104590
    Two major flaviviruses, dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV), cause severe health and economic burdens worldwide. Recently, genome-wide screenings have uncovered the importance of regulators of the Hrd1 ubiquitin ligase-mediated endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway for flavivirus replication in host cells. Here we report the identification of the compound Bardoxolone methyl (CDDO-me) as a potent inhibitor of the Hrd1 ubiquitin ligase-mediated ERAD, which possesses a broad-spectrum activity against both DENV and ZIKV. Cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) suggested that CDDO-me binds to grp94, a key component of the Hrd1 pathway, at a low nanomolar concentration, whereas interaction was not detected with its paralog Hsp90. CDDO-me and the grp94 inhibitor PU-WS13 substantially suppressed DENV2 replication and the cytopathic effects caused by DENV and ZIKV infection. The antiviral activities of both compounds were demonstrated for all four DENV serotypes and four ZIKV strains in multiple human cell lines. This study defines grp94 as a crucial host factor for flavivirus replication and identified CDDO-me as a potent small molecule inhibitor of flavivirus infection. Inhibition of grp94 may contribute to the antiviral activity of CDDO-me. Further investigation of grp94 inhibitors may lead to a new class of broad-spectrum anti-flaviviral medications.
  2. Potential DNA Vaccine for Haemorrhagic Septiceamia Disease
    Chelliah S, Velappan RD, Lim KT, Swee CWK, Nor Rashid N, Rothan HA, et al.
    Mol Biotechnol, 2020 May;62(5):289-296.
    PMID: 32185600 DOI: 10.1007/s12033-020-00244-0
    Pasteurella multocida is the main cause of haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) outbreak in livestock, such as cattle and buffaloes. Conventional vaccines such as alum-precipitated or oil-adjuvant broth bacterins were injected subcutaneously to provide protection against HS. However, the immunity developed is only for short term and needed to be administered frequently. In our previous study, a short gene fragment from Pasteurella multocida serotype B was obtained via shotgun cloning technique and later was cloned into bacterial expression system. pQE32-ABA392 was found to possess immunogenic activity towards HS when tested in vivo in rat model. In this study, the targeted gene fragment of ABA392 was sub-cloned into a DNA expression vector pVAX1 and named as pVAX1-ABA392. The new recombinant vaccine was stable and expressed on mammalian cell lines. Serum sample collected from a group of vaccinated rats for ELISA test shows that the antibody in immunized rats was present at high titer and can be tested as a vaccine candidate with challenge in further studies. This successful recombinant vaccine is immunogenic and potentially could be used as vaccine in future against HS.
  3. Fulltext Development of a passive liquid valve (PLV) utilizing a pressure equilibrium phenomenon on the centrifugal microfluidic platform
    Al-Faqheri W, Ibrahim F, Thio TH, Bahari N, Arof H, Rothan HA, et al.
    Sensors (Basel), 2015 Feb 25;15(3):4658-76.
    PMID: 25723143 DOI: 10.3390/s150304658
    In this paper, we propose an easy-to-implement passive liquid valve (PLV) for the microfluidic compact-disc (CD). This valve can be implemented by introducing venting chambers to control the air flow of the source and destination chambers. The PLV mechanism is based on equalizing the main forces acting on the microfluidic CD (i.e., the centrifugal and capillary forces) to control the burst frequency of the source chamber liquid. For a better understanding of the physics behind the proposed PLV, an analytical model is described. Moreover, three parameters that control the effectiveness of the proposed valve, i.e., the liquid height, liquid density, and venting chamber position with respect to the CD center, are tested experimentally. To demonstrate the ability of the proposed PLV valve, microfluidic liquid switching and liquid metering are performed. In addition, a Bradford assay is performed to measure the protein concentration and evaluated in comparison to the benchtop procedure. The result shows that the proposed valve can be implemented in any microfluidic process that requires simplicity and accuracy. Moreover, the developed valve increases the flexibility of the centrifugal CD platform for passive control of the liquid flow without the need for an external force or trigger.
  4. A single centre experience of the efficacy and safety of dabigatran etexilate used for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation
    Yap LB, Rusani BI, Umadevan D, Muhammad Z, Hussin A, Kaur S, et al.
    J Thromb Thrombolysis, 2014 Jul;38(1):39-44.
    PMID: 24197653 DOI: 10.1007/s11239-013-1020-y
    The use of novel anticoagulants such as dabigatran are increasing. Despite increased risks of intracerebral haemorrhage with warfarin among Asians, there is little published data on dabigatran to assess 'real world' efficacy and safety of dabigatran therapy in Asia. This was a retrospective observational study of patients prescribed dabigatran between 2010 and 2013. Data was available for 510 patients: median age 68 years (range 20-91), median CHA2DS2-VASc score was 2 and median HAS-BLED score was 2. The average follow-up duration of 315 days (range: 1-1,096). The overall discontinuation rate was 16% after a median 252 days of treatment with dabigatran. There were 17 (3.3%) patients with minor bleeding, 2 (0.4%) had major bleeding episodes. 20 patients (3.9%) developed dyspepsia which was the most common side effect. The rate of occurrences of adverse effects and bleeding were lower than those seen in the RE-LY trial. None of the patients had an ischaemic stroke, 1 (0.2%) patient had a haemorrhagic stroke. Out of 510 patients, 158 patients (31%) were switched to dabigatran from warfarin. This showed that patients frequently preferred the dabigatran due to convenience when given a choice to switch from warfarin. We report one of the largest registry of Asian patients. Reassuringly, we found that our cohort had a low rate of rate of ischaemic stroke, low rates of side effects and bleeding with the drug.
  5. In vitro binding of mutagenic heterocyclic aromatic amines by Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum G4
    Faridnia F, Hussin AS, Saari N, Mustafa S, Yee LY, Manap MY
    Benef Microbes, 2010 Jun;1(2):149-54.
    PMID: 21831754 DOI: 10.3920/BM2009.0035
    Consumption of probiotics has been associated with decreased risk of colon cancer and reported to have antimutagenic/ anti-carcinogenic properties. One possible mechanism for this effect involves physical binding of the mutagenic compounds, such as heterocyclic amines (HCAs), to the bacteria. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the binding capacity of bifidobacterial strains of human origin on mutagenic heterocyclic amines which are suspected to play a role in human cancers. In vitro binding of the mutagens Trp-p-2, IQ, MeIQx, 7,8DiMeIQx and PhIP by three bacterial strains in two media of different pH was analysed using high performance liquid chromatography. Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum G4 showed the highest decrease in the total HCAs content, followed by Bifidobacterium longum, and Escherichia coli. pH affects binding capacity; the highest binding was obtained at pH 6.8. Gram-positive tested strains were found to be consistently more effective than the gram-negative strain. There were significant decreases in the amount of HCAs in the presence of different cell concentrations of B. pseudocatenulatum G4; the highest decrease was detected at the concentration of 10(10) cfu/ml. The results showed that HCAs were able to bind with all bacterial strains tested in vitro, thus it may be possible to decrease their absorption by human intestine and increase their elimination via faeces.
  6. Applying a statistical PTB detection procedure to complement the gold standard
    Noor NM, Yunus A, Bakar SA, Hussin A, Rijal OM
    Comput Med Imaging Graph, 2011 Apr;35(3):186-94.
    PMID: 21036539 DOI: 10.1016/j.compmedimag.2010.10.002
    This paper investigates a novel statistical discrimination procedure to detect PTB when the gold standard requirement is taken into consideration. Archived data were used to establish two groups of patients which are the control and test group. The control group was used to develop the statistical discrimination procedure using four vectors of wavelet coefficients as feature vectors for the detection of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), lung cancer (LC), and normal lung (NL). This discrimination procedure was investigated using the test group where the number of sputum positive and sputum negative cases that were correctly classified as PTB cases were noted. The proposed statistical discrimination method is able to detect PTB patients and LC with high true positive fraction. The method is also able to detect PTB patients that are sputum negative and therefore may be used as a complement to the gold standard.
  7. Fulltext Enhancing the urea-N use efficiency in maize (Zea mays) cultivation on acid soils amended with zeolite and TSP
    Ahmed OH, Hussin A, Ahmad HM, Rahim AA, Majid NM
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2008 Apr 20;8:394-9.
    PMID: 18454247 DOI: 10.1100/tsw.2008.68
    Ammonia loss significantly reduces the urea-N use efficiency in crop production. Efforts to reduce this problem are mostly laboratory oriented. This paper reports the effects of urea amended with triple superphosphate (TSP) and zeolite (Clinoptilolite) on soil pH, nitrate, exchangeable ammonium, dry matter production, N uptake, fresh cob production, and urea-N uptake efficiency in maize (Zea mays) cultivation on an acid soil in actual field conditions. Urea-amended TSP and zeolite treatments and urea only (urea without additives) did not have long-term effect on soil pH and accumulation of soil exchangeable ammonium and nitrate. Treatments with higher amounts of TSP and zeolite significantly increased the dry matter (stem and leaf) production of Swan (test crop). All the treatments had no significant effect on urea-N concentration in the leaf and stem of the test crop. In terms of urea-N uptake in the leaf and stem tissues of Swan, only the treatment with the highest amount of TSP and zeolite significantly increased urea-N uptake in the leaf of the test crop. Irrespective of treatment, fresh cob production was statistically not different. However, all the treatments with additives improved urea-N uptake efficiency compared to urea without additives or amendment. This suggests that urea amended with TSP and zeolite has a potential of reducing ammonia loss from surface-applied urea.
  8. Cell death induced by hydroxyapatite on L929 fibroblast cells
    Inayat-Hussain SH, Rajab NF, Roslie H, Hussin AA, Ali AM, Annuar BO
    Med J Malaysia, 2004 May;59 Suppl B:176-7.
    PMID: 15468875
    Biomaterials intended for end-use application as bone-graft substitutes have to undergo safety evaluation. In this study, we investigated the in vitro cytotoxic effects especially to determine the mode of death of two hydroxyapatite compounds (HA2, HA3) which were synthesized locally. The methods used for cytotoxicity was the standard MTT assay whereas AO/PI staining was performed to determine the mode of cell death in HA treated L929 fibroblasts. Our results demonstrated that both HA2 and HA3 were not significantly cytotoxic as more than 75% cells after 72 hours treatment were viable. Furthermore, we found that the major mode of cell death in HA treated cells was apoptosis. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that these hydroxyapatite compounds are not cytotoxic where the mode of death was primarily via apoptosis.
  9. Fulltext Analysis of the survival motor neuron and neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein genes in Malay patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy
    Zilfalil BA, Zabidi-Hussin AMH, Watihayati MS, Rozainah MY, Naing L, Sutomo R, et al.
    Med J Malaysia, 2004 Oct;59(4):512-4.
    PMID: 15779584 MyJurnal
    In Malaysia, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is diagnosed based on clinical observation with or without muscle biopsy. Molecular analyses of the SMA-related genes have not been available so far. In this preliminary study, we searched for homozygous deletion of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN1) and Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein (NAIP) genes in Malay patients with SMA and found homozygous deletion of SMN1 exon 7 and 8 in all the patients while homozygous deletion of NAIP exon 5 was detected in only our type 1 patients but not in the type 3 patient. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first SMA cases diagnosed at the molecular level in Malaysia.
  10. Increased PAC-1 expression among patients with multiple myeloma on concurrent thalidomide and warfarin
    Abdullah WZ, Roshan TM, Hussin A, Zain WS, Abdullah D
    Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis, 2013 Dec;24(8):893-5.
    PMID: 24030118 DOI: 10.1097/MBC.0b013e3283642ee2
    Treatment with thalidomide is associated with vascular thrombosis. The effect of thalidomide on platelet activation is unclear, although the use of aspirin is justified for thromboprophylaxis. A study on platelet activation markers was done among multiple myeloma patients receiving thalidomide therapy with warfarin as thromboprophylaxis. Strict criteria and procedure were set to avoid misinterpretation of platelet activation other than due to the thalidomide's effect. Blood specimen pre and post thalidomide therapy were used for flow cytometric analysis. Platelet surface P-selectin, CD62P expression and PAC-1 (antibody that recognizes conformational change of the GPIIb/IIIa complex) were examined by using three-colour flowcytometer. Increased expression marker for PAC-1 was observed after 4 weeks of thalidomide treatment (P 
  11. Systematic Optimisation of Microtiter Plate Lectin Assay to Improve Sialic Acid Linkage Detection
    Khairol Mokhtar NHI, Hussin A, Hamid AA, Zainal Ariffin SH, Shahidan MA
    Comb Chem High Throughput Screen, 2021 Aug 02.
    PMID: 34342257 DOI: 10.2174/1386207324666210802122538
    AIMS: We aimed to develop a high-throughput lectin assay with minimized background signals to investigate the interactions of lectins and sialic acid glycans, focusing on prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

    BACKGROUND: High background signals resulting from nonspecific binding are a significant concern for microtiter plate-based enzyme-linked lectin sorbent assays (ELLSAs), as they can mask specific binding signals and cause false-positive results.

    METHODS: In this study, we constructed an ELLSA based on different washing step parameters, including the number of washing cycles, NaCl and Tween-20 concentrations, and the type of blocking agent and evaluated the effects on both specific and nonspecific binding signals. Furthermore, we performed a PSA binding assay using the optimized ELLSA.

    RESULTS: The optimal washing parameters based on the highest specific binding signal proposed four cycles of washing steps using a washing buffer containing a high salt concentration (0.5 M NaCl) and mild detergent (0.05% Tween-20). The utilization of the optimized washing parameters in this assay was shown to be sufficient to obtain the optimal binding signals without the use of any blocking agent. Binding assays performed using the optimized ELLSA revealed that the glycan of the PSA sample used in this study mainly consists of terminal α2,6-linked sialic acid, as strongly recognized by Sambucus nigra agglutinin (SNA) with a KD value of 12.38 nM.

    CONCLUSION: The ELLSA reported in this study provides a simple yet sensitive assay for sialic acid linkage recognition.

  12. A Recombinant Subunit HSABA392 as a potential Vaccine for Haemorrhagic septicaemia disease in livestock
    Rita DV, Swee KCW, Shamini C, Kang TL, Nurshamimi NR, Hussin AR, et al.
    Trop Biomed, 2018 Dec 01;35(4):1075-1086.
    PMID: 33601854
    Haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) is a major disease in cattle and buffaloes, caused by certain serotypes of Pasteurella multocida, mainly B and E serotypes. Frequent HS outbreak has a major impact in many Asian countries, including Malaysia, where farmers encounter economic loss due to low milk production as well as death of their livestock. There are four types of vaccines available; broth bacterins, alum precipitated vaccine, aluminium hydroxide gel vaccine and oil adjuvant vaccine (OAV), but these vaccines can only provide short term immunity and therefore need to be administered annually. Hence, the development of a protein vaccine using recombinant antigen can be a potential candidate for the production of HS vaccine that would give longer immunity. We have successfully cloned the ABA392 gene fragment into a protein expression vector, pET-30a. The protein was expressed from our ABA392/pET30a clone and the immunogenicity of the protein has been tested on rats. This vaccine was able to trigger an immune response and therefore has the potential to be tested as suitable vaccine candidate in future studies. It is envisaged that this subunit vaccine will make a significant contribution in the management of HS among livestock in future.
  13. Bio-cellulose Production by Beijerinckia fluminensis WAUPM53 and Gluconacetobacter xylinus 0416 in Sago By-product Medium
    Voon WWY, Muhialdin BJ, Yusof NL, Rukayadi Y, Meor Hussin AS
    Appl Biochem Biotechnol, 2019 Jan;187(1):211-220.
    PMID: 29915916 DOI: 10.1007/s12010-018-2807-2
    Bio-cellulose is the microbial extracellular cellulose that is produced by growing several microorganisms on agriculture by-products, and it is used in several food applications. This study aims to utilize sago by-product, coconut water, and the standard medium Hestrin-Schramm as the carbon sources in the culture medium for bio-cellulose production. The bacteria Beijerinkia fluminensis WAUPM53 and Gluconacetobacter xylinus 0416 were selected based on their bio-cellulose production activity. The structure was determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, while the toxicity safety was evaluated by brine shrimp lethality test. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that the bio-cellulose produced by B. fluminensis cultivated in sago by-products was of high quality. The bio-cellulose production by B. fluminensis in the sago by-product medium was slightly higher than that in the coconut water medium and was comparable with the production in the Hestrin-Schramm medium. Brine shrimp lethality test confirmed that the bio-cellulose produced by B. fluminensis in the sago by-product medium has no toxicity, which is safe for applications in the food industry. This is the first study to determine the high potential of sago by-product to be used as a new carbon source for the bio-cellulose production.
  14. Fulltext Familial antithrombin III deficiency in a Malay patient with massive thrombosis
    Wan Ab Rahman WS, Abdullah WZ, Hassan MN, Hussin A, Zulkafli Z, Haron J
    Malays J Pathol, 2017 Aug;39(2):197-200.
    PMID: 28866705 MyJurnal
    Patients with low antithrombin III (AT III) has increased risk for arteriovenous thromboembolic (TE) disease. We report a 28-year-old Malay lady who presented with spontaneous right calf pain and swelling of one week duration. She was on oral contraceptive pills and had a history of travelling for a long distance prior to the presentation. Her brother who was diagnosed with AT III deficiency had arterial thrombosis at a young age. She was diagnosed as having right popliteal vein thrombosis by ultrasound and treated with subcutaneous fondaparinux. While on treatment, she developed massive bilateral pulmonary embolism (PE). Thrombophilia study showed reduced AT III activity (38μl/dl) and normal results for protein C, protein S, activated protein C resistance and lupus anticoagulant assays. This patient has heterozygous AT III deficiency added with significant acquired factors responsible for the TE events. Those with AT III deficiency may have resistance to heparin therapy and require higher doses of heparin.
  15. Fulltext Improving the clinical recognition, prognosis, and treatment of melioidosis through epidemiology and clinical findings: The Sabah perspective
    Hussin A, Nor Rahim MY, Dalusim F, Shahidan MA, Nathan S, Ibrahim N
    PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2023 Oct;17(10):e0011696.
    PMID: 37844130 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011696
    INTRODUCTION: Melioidosis is a deadly endemic disease in northern Australia and Southeast Asia, including Sabah, Malaysia, which is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. It contributes to high fatality rates, mainly due to misdiagnosis leading to the wrong treatment being administered to the patients. Local epidemiology and data on clinical features could assist clinicians during diagnosis and treatment. However, these details are still scarce, particularly in Sabah.

    METHODS: A retrospective study of 246 culture-confirmed melioidosis cases in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Sabah, Malaysia was performed between 2016 and 2018. The epidemiological data and clinical and laboratory findings were extracted and analysed.

    RESULTS: The annual incidence of culture-confirmed melioidosis cases was estimated to be 4.97 per 100,000 people. The mean age of the patients was 50±15 years. Males and members of the Kadazan-Dusun ethnic group accounted for the majority of the melioidosis cases. The odds ratio analysis indicated that bacteraemic melioidosis in this region was significantly associated with fever (76%), and patients having at least one underlying illness (43%), including diabetes mellitus (32%). Sixty-eight patients (28%) succumbed to melioidosis. Contrary to what is known regarding factors that promote bacteraemic melioidosis, neither patients with fever nor patients with at least one comorbid disease, including diabetes mellitus, were significantly associated with death from melioidosis. There was no statistically significant difference between patients without comorbidities (24, 27%) and those with at least one comorbid disease (26, 25%), including diabetes mellitus (18, 23%). The odds ratios indicate that melioidosis mortality in this region is related to patients showing respiratory organ-associated symptoms (29%), bacteraemia (30%), and septic shock (47%). Burkholderia pseudomallei isolates in this study were highly susceptible to ceftazidime (100%), imipenem (100%), and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (98%).

    CONCLUSIONS: Information obtained from this study can be used by clinicians to recognise individuals with the highest risk of acquiring melioidosis, estimate an accurate prognosis, and provide effective treatment for melioidosis patients to reduce death from melioidosis.

  16. Identification and mechanism determination of the efflux pump subunit amrB gene mutations linked to gentamicin susceptibility in clinical Burkholderia pseudomallei from Malaysian Borneo
    Hussin A, Nathan S, Shahidan MA, Nor Rahim MY, Zainun MY, Khairuddin NAN, et al.
    Mol Genet Genomics, 2024 Feb 21;299(1):12.
    PMID: 38381232 DOI: 10.1007/s00438-024-02105-w
    The bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei is typically resistant to gentamicin but rare susceptible strains have been isolated in certain regions, such as Thailand and Sarawak, Malaysia. Recently, several amino acid substitutions have been reported in the amrB gene (a subunit of the amrAB-oprA efflux pump gene) that confer gentamicin susceptibility. However, information regarding the mechanism of the substitutions conferring the susceptibility is lacking. To understand the mechanism of amino acid substitution that confers susceptibility, this study identifies the corresponding mutations in clinical gentamicin-susceptible B. pseudomallei isolates from the Malaysian Borneo (n = 46; Sarawak: 5; Sabah: 41). Three phenotypically confirmed gentamicin-susceptible (GENs) strains from Sarawak, Malaysia, were screened for mutations in the amrB gene using gene sequences of gentamicin-resistant (GENr) strains (QEH 56, QEH 57, QEH20, and QEH26) and publicly available sequences (AF072887.1 and BX571965.1) as the comparator. The effect of missense mutations on the stability of the AmrB protein was determined by calculating the average energy change value (ΔΔG). Mutagenesis analysis identified a polymorphism-associated mutation, g.1056 T > G, a possible susceptible-associated in-frame deletion, Delta V412, and a previously confirmed susceptible-associated amino acid substitution, T368R, in each of the three GENs isolates. The contribution of Delta V412 needs further confirmation by experimental mutagenesis analysis. The mechanism by which T368R confers susceptibility, as elucidated by in silico mutagenesis analysis using AmrB-modeled protein structures, is proposed to be due to the location of T368R in a highly conserved region, rather than destabilization of the AmrB protein structure.
  17. Fulltext Application of phase congruency for discriminating some lung diseases using chest radiograph
    Rijal OM, Ebrahimian H, Noor NM, Hussin A, Yunus A, Mahayiddin AA
    Comput Math Methods Med, 2015;2015:424970.
    PMID: 25918551 DOI: 10.1155/2015/424970
    A novel procedure using phase congruency is proposed for discriminating some lung disease using chest radiograph. Phase congruency provides information about transitions between adjacent pixels. Abrupt changes of phase congruency values between pixels may suggest a possible boundary or another feature that may be used for discrimination. This property of phase congruency may have potential for deciding between disease present and disease absent where the regions of infection on the images have no obvious shape, size, or configuration. Five texture measures calculated from phase congruency and Gabor were shown to be normally distributed. This gave good indicators of discrimination errors in the form of the probability of Type I Error (δ) and the probability of Type II Error (β). However, since 1 -  δ is the true positive fraction (TPF) and β is the false positive fraction (FPF), an ROC analysis was used to decide on the choice of texture measures. Given that features are normally distributed, for the discrimination between disease present and disease absent, energy, contrast, and homogeneity from phase congruency gave better results compared to those using Gabor. Similarly, for the more difficult problem of discriminating lobar pneumonia and lung cancer, entropy and homogeneity from phase congruency gave better results relative to Gabor.
  18. Bacterial community structure, predicted metabolic activities, and formation of volatile compounds attributed to Malaysian fish sauce flavour
    Shanti Dwita Lestari, Shobirin Meor Hussin A, Mustafa S, Yun Shin Sew, Ming Gan H, Hashim AM, et al.
    Food Chem, 2023 Nov 15;426:136568.
    PMID: 37437500 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136568
    The fermentation of Malaysian fish sauce (budu) varies from one to twelve months depending on the producer, resulting in inconsistent quality. The microbiota, their predicted metabolic pathways and volatile metabolites profiles were determined at different stages of budu fermentation. Budu fermented for 1 and 3 months were characterized by the presence of Gram negative Enterobacterales, Gammaproteobacteria, and Fusobacteriaceae, which continuously decrease in abundance over fermentation time. The metabolic pathways prediction grouped 1- and 3- month budu in a cluster enriched with degradation reactions. 6-month budu were dominated by Halanaerobium and Staphylococcus, while the 12-month were dominated by Lentibacillus, Bacilli, and Halomonas. Biosynthesis-type predicted pathways involving protein and lipid derivatives were enriched in 6- and 12-month fermented budu, accumulating 2,6-dimethylpyrazine, methyl 2-ethyldecanoate, 2-phenylacetaldehyde, 3-methylbutanal, and 3-methylbutanoic acid. These compounds may indicate budu maturity and quality. This result may assist as a reference for quality control and fermentation monitoring.
  19. Chronic hepatitis C virus infection triggers spontaneous differential expression of biosignatures associated with T cell exhaustion and apoptosis signaling in peripheral blood mononucleocytes
    Barathan M, Gopal K, Mohamed R, Ellegård R, Saeidi A, Vadivelu J, et al.
    Apoptosis, 2015 Apr;20(4):466-80.
    PMID: 25577277 DOI: 10.1007/s10495-014-1084-y
    Persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection appears to trigger the onset of immune exhaustion to potentially assist viral persistence in the host, eventually leading to hepatocellular carcinoma. The role of HCV on the spontaneous expression of markers suggestive of immune exhaustion and spontaneous apoptosis in immune cells of chronic HCV (CHC) disease largely remain elusive. We investigated the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of CHC patients to determine the spontaneous recruitment of cellular reactive oxygen species (cROS), immunoregulatory and exhaustion markers relative to healthy controls. Using a commercial QuantiGenePlex(®) 2.0 assay, we determined the spontaneous expression profile of 80 different pro- and anti-apoptotic genes in persistent HCV disease. Onset of spontaneous apoptosis significantly correlated with the up-regulation of cROS, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), cyclooxygenase-2/prostaglandin H synthase (COX-2/PGHS), Foxp3, Dtx1, Blimp1, Lag3 and Cd160. Besides, spontaneous differential surface protein expression suggestive of T cell inhibition viz., TRAIL, TIM-3, PD-1 and BTLA on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and CTLA-4 on CD4+ T cells was also evident. Increased up-regulation of Tnf, Tp73, Casp14, Tnfrsf11b, Bik and Birc8 was observed, whereas FasLG, Fas, Ripk2, Casp3, Dapk1, Tnfrsf21, and Cflar were moderately up-regulated in HCV-infected subjects. Our observation suggests the spontaneous onset of apoptosis signaling and T cell exhaustion in chronic HCV disease.
  20. Novel active fixation mechanism permits precise placement of a left ventricular lead: early results from a multicenter clinical study
    Yee R, Gadler F, Hussin A, Bin Omar R, Khaykin Y, Verma A, et al.
    Heart Rhythm, 2014 Jul;11(7):1150-5.
    PMID: 24801899 DOI: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2014.04.020
    Left ventricular (LV) lead implantation for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is associated with lead dislodgement rates ranging from 3% to 10%, and some implant approaches to prevent dislodgement may contribute to suboptimal CRT response. We report our early human experience with an LV lead with a side helix for active fixation to the coronary vein wall.
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