Publications by authors named "Aqsa Ikram"

Aims And Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant risk factor for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Serum-derived circular RNAs (circRNAs) play several crucial roles in HCV and HCC. They represent a promising area of research for improving the diagnosis and understanding the mechanisms of HCV-HCC.

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Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a type of malignant tumor and the sixth leading cause of death worldwide. It is caused by HBV, HCV infection, and alcohol consumption. MicroRNAs are typically small, non-coding RNAs that are involved in the regulation of mRNA expression.

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Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that occurs due to impaired secretion of insulin, insulin resistance, or both. Recent studies show that the antidiabetic drugs used to control hyperglycemic levels are associated with undesirable adverse effects. Therefore, developing a safe and effective medicine with antidiabetic potential is needed.

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Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) can control the flux of genetic information; affect RNA stability and play crucial roles in mediating epigenetic modifications. A number of studies have highlighted the potential roles of both virus-encoded and host-encoded ncRNAs in viral infections, transmission and therapeutics. However, the role of an emerging type of non-coding transcript, circular RNA (circRNA) in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has not been fully elucidated so far.

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Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) is a major cause of acute and chronic hepatitis. The severity of HEV infection increases manyfold in pregnant women and immunocompromised patients. Despite the extensive research on HEV in the last few decades, there is no widely available vaccine yet.

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Altered autophagy is a hallmark of neurodegeneration but how autophagy is regulated in the brain and dysfunctional autophagy leads to neuronal death has remained cryptic. Being a key cellular waste-recycling and housekeeping system, autophagy is implicated in a range of brain disorders and altering autophagy flux could be an effective therapeutic strategy and has the potential for clinical applications down the road. Tight regulation of proteins and organelles in order to meet the needs of complex neuronal physiology suggests that there is distinct regulatory pattern of neuronal autophagy as compared to non-neuronal cells and nervous system might have its own separate regulator of autophagy.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a type of malignant tumor. miRNAs are noncoding RNAs and their differential expression patterns are observed in HCC-induced by alcoholism, HBV and HCV infections. By acting as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), circRNA regulates the miRNA function, indirectly controlling the gene expression and leading to HCC progression.

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Many PTMs dysregulation is known to be the major cause of many cancers including HCV induced HCC. PTMs of hepatitis C virus (HCV) regions NS3/4A, NS5A and NS5B are crucial for proper protein functions and replication that directly affect the generation of infectious virus particles and completion of its life cycle. In this study, we have performed comprehensive analysis of PTMs within HCV non-structural proteins (NS3/4A, NS5A and NS5B) through bioinformatics analysis to examine post-translational crosstalk between phosphorylation, palmitoylation, methylation, acetylation and ubiquitination sites in selected viral proteins.

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Zoonotic coronaviruses (CoV) have emerged twice and have caused severe respiratory diseases in humans. Due to the frequent outbreaks of different human coronaviruses (HCoVs), the development of a pan-HCoV vaccine is of great importance. Various conserved epitopes shared by HCoVs are reported to induce cross-reactive T-cell responses.

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An in-depth analysis of first-wave SARS-CoV-2 genome is required to identify various mutations that significantly affect viral fitness. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive in silico mutational analysis of 3C-like protease (3CLpro), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), and spike (S) proteins with the aim of gaining important insights into first-wave virus mutations and their functional and structural impact on SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Our integrated analysis gathered 6000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences and identified 92 mutations in S, 37 in RdRp, and 11 in 3CLpro regions.

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Background: A recent COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large death toll rate globally and even no cure or vaccine has been successfully employed to combat this disease. Patients have been reported with multi-organ dysfunction along with acute respiratory distress syndrome which implies a critical situation for patients and made them difficult to breathe and survive. Moreover, pathology of COVID-19 is also related to cytokine storm which indicates the elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-18 along with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α.

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Background: This cohort study was designed to investigate the prevalence of and potential risk factors of HEV infection in a large multi-ethnic youth cohort in China.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from participants (n = 6269) and serum was isolated. All serum samples were tested for anti-HEV IgG, anti-HEV IgM antibodies using commercial enzyme immunoassay kits (Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, Beijing, China).

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Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are ubiquitously expressed, covalently closed rings, produced by pre-mRNA splicing in a reversed order during post-transcriptional processing. Circularity endows 3'-5'-linked circRNAs with stability and resistance to exonucleolytic degradation which raises the question whether circRNAs may be relevant as potential therapeutic targets or agents. High stability in biological systems is the most remarkable property and a major criterion for why circRNAs could be exploited for a range of RNA-centred medical applications.

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Rotavirus is a major cause of diarrhea in Indonesian children. However, rotavirus vaccines have not been introduced in the national immunization program of Indonesia. Understanding the genetic diversity and conserved antigenic regions of circulating strains are therefore essential to assess the potential efficacy of rotavirus vaccines.

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Mutations in several genes, including and , have been associated with the development of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Here, we reported the co-occurrence of a rare heterozygous variant (c.167C>G p.

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Rotaviruses and noroviruses are the most important viral causes of acute gastroenteritis in children. While previous studies of acute gastroenteritis in Indonesia mainly focused on rotavirus, here, we investigated the burden and epidemiology of norovirus and rotavirus disease. Children less than five years of age hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis were enrolled in this study from January to December 2015 at three participating hospitals.

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccines, designed to augment specific T-cell responses, have been designated as an important aspect of effective antiviral treatment. However, despite the current satisfactory progress of these vaccines, extensive past efforts largely remained unsuccessful in mediating clinically relevant anti-HCV activity in humans. In this study, we used a series of immunoinformatics approaches to propose a multiepitope vaccine against HCV by prioritizing 16 conserved epitopes from three viral proteins (i.

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A regulated immune system employs multiple cell types, diverse variety of cytokines and interacting signalling networks against infections. Systems biology offers a promising solution to model and simulate such large populations of interacting components of immune systems holistically. This study focuses on the distinct components of the adaptive immune system and analysis, both individually and in association with HCV infection.

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Rotavirus (RV) primarily infects enterocytes and results in severe diarrhea, particularly in children. It is known that the host immune responses determine the outcome of viral infections. Following infections, interferons (IFNs) are produced as the first and the main anti-viral cytokines to combat the virus.

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Polio viral proteinase 2A performs several essential functions in genome replication. Its inhibition prevents viral replication, thus making it an excellent substrate for drug development. In this study, the three-dimensional structure of 2A protease was determined and optimized by homology modelling.

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Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the leading cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide and an emerging cause of chronic infection in immunocompromised patients. As with viral infections in general, immune responses are critical to determine the outcome of HEV infection. Accumulating studies in cell culture, animal models and patients have improved our understanding of HEV immunopathogenesis and informed the development of new antiviral therapies and effective vaccines.

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Tight junctions help prevent the passage of digestive enzymes and microorganisms through the space between adjacent epithelial cells lining. However, encoded virulence factors negatively regulate these tight junctions and contribute to dysfunction of gastric mucosa. Here, we have predicted the regulation of important tight junction proteins, such as Zonula occludens-1, Claudin-2 and Connexin32 in the presence of pathogenic proteins.

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