Publications by authors named "Aroona Razzaq"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the genetic diversity and evolutionary dynamics of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Pakistan, analyzing 954 sequenced genomes during the fifth wave of the pandemic.
  • - Results show that the Pakistani Omicron variant originated from two distinct lineages and has low genetic diversity but significant mutations in the spike protein, with a notable increase in the population size at the end of 2021.
  • - The findings highlight Omicron's unique evolutionary path and the importance of global cooperation to monitor virus variants and improve pandemic response strategies.
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  • The ORF9b protein from SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 is important for the virus to evade the immune system, but the specific ways it works are not fully understood.
  • This study shows that ORF9b can be tagged for degradation through a pathway involving ubiquitination and a complex formation with TOM70, HSP90α, and CUL5, where CUL5 helps degrade ORF9b while HSP90α stabilizes it.
  • Treatments that inhibit HSP90, such as GA or 17-AAG, increase the breakdown of ORF9b and reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication, indicating a potential target for new COVID-19 treatments and enhancing understanding of the host-virus
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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is continuously producing new variants, necessitating effective therapeutics. Patients are not only confronted by the immediate symptoms of infection but also by the long-term health issues linked to long COVID-19. Activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signalling during SARS-CoV-2 infection promotes virus propagation, mucus hyperproduction, and pulmonary fibrosis, and suppresses the host's antiviral response.

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Article Synopsis
  • Three human coronaviruses have emerged over the last two decades—SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2—creating significant health and economic challenges that drive research into their characteristics and treatments.
  • MERS-CoV's ORF4b protein can suppress the immune response but is unstable and degraded by the host's ubiquitin proteasome system, specifically regulated by the UBR5 protein.
  • UBR5 diminishes ORF4b’s anti-immunity effects, thereby inhibiting MERS-CoV's ability to evade the immune system, showcasing a new mechanism through which host cells combat this virus.
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  • Emerging evidence indicates that circular RNAs (circRNAs), particularly circMDK, play a significant role in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and may serve as oncogenic markers.
  • CircMDK, found to be upregulated in HCC, enhances tumor growth and metastasis by sponging specific microRNAs and activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.
  • Delivery of circMDK-targeting siRNA using poly (β-amino esters) significantly inhibits HCC tumor progression in various mouse models, suggesting potential for nanotherapeutic applications in cancer treatment.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global pandemic with over 23 million cases and at least 800,000 deaths as of August 2020, challenging healthcare systems worldwide.
  • - This review explores the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, discusses potential treatments, and highlights technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 and PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras for drug development and disease detection.
  • - Additionally, it covers the limited epidemiological data on COVID-19, ongoing vaccine efforts, and suggests future research directions to better understand the disease's molecular mechanisms.
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With the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), coronaviruses have begun to attract great attention across the world. Of the known human coronaviruses, however, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is the most lethal. Coronavirus proteins can be divided into three groups: nonstructural proteins, structural proteins, and accessory proteins.

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Article Synopsis
  • In a study of 47 COVID-19 patients compared to 19 healthy controls, researchers found unique microorganisms in the COVID-19 group and significant changes in gut microbiota composition, including decreased butyrate producers and increased probiotic levels.
  • The research identified 15 microbial markers that could help diagnose COVID-19 and noted correlations between certain gut bacteria and clinical features of the disease, suggesting that gut microbiota alterations may impact COVID-19 severity.
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SARS-CoV-2 is the etiological agent responsible for the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The main protease of SARS-CoV-2, 3CLpro, is an attractive target for antiviral inhibitors due to its indispensable role in viral replication and gene expression of viral proteins. The search of compounds that can effectively inhibit the crucial activity of 3CLpro, which results to interference of the virus life cycle, is now widely pursued.

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Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is an incapacitating situation and has no effective therapy until now. We examined the possible role of crude leaves of Lam. at 200 mg/kg body weight in accelerating the functional regain in the sciatic nerve lesion induced mouse model (Adult male albino mice (BALB/c).

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Background: Peripheral nerve injury is a debilitating condition that may lead to partial or complete motor, sensory and autonomic function loss and lacks effective therapy until date. Therefore, it is quite imperative to explore impending remedies for rapid and accurate functional retrieval following such conditions. Natural product-based intervention can prove effective to facilitate the process of functions regain.

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Peripheral nerve injury is a complex condition with a variety of signs and symptoms such as numbness, tingling, jabbing, throbbing, burning or sharp pain. Peripheral nerves are fragile in nature and can easily get damaged due to acute compression or trauma which may lead to the sensory and motor functions deficits and even lifelong disability. After lesion, the neuronal cell body becomes disconnected from the axon's distal portion to the injury site leading to the axonal degeneration and dismantlement of neuromuscular junctions of targeted muscles.

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Peripheral nerve injury is a complex condition which results in restricted physical activity. Despite the tremendous efforts to figure out effective remedies, the complete functional retrieval is still a goal to be achieved. So, the need of hour is the exploration of potential natural compounds to recover this functional loss.

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Peripheral nerve injury is one of the major health concerns of the present era which can lead to the long-lasting disability and even demise. Currently, no effective and side effect free remedy exists and exploration of effective therapeutic strategies to regain functional outcome is a need of hour. In the present study, we used BALB/c mice (N = 14 age, 10-12 weeks & weight 32-34 g) that were divided into two groups: Normal chow (n = 7) and Fennel chow (n = 7) group.

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Neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases are characterized by the structural and functional abnormalities of neurons in certain regions of the brain. These abnormalities, which can result in progressive neuronal degeneration and functional disability, are incurable to date. Although comprehensive efforts have been made to figure out effective therapies against these diseases, partial success has been achieved and complete functional recovery is still not a reality.

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Peripheral nerve injury is a common condition with a multitude of signs and symptoms. The major consequence of injury is limited physical activity. Presently, we are lacking effective therapies for PNI and it is need of the hour is to explore potential remedies for the recovery of functional loss.

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Brain is a vital organ of the human body which performs very important functions such as analysis, processing, coordination, and execution of electrical signals. For this purpose, it depends on a complex network of nerves which are ensheathed in lipids tailored myelin; an abundant source of lipids in the body. The nervous system is enriched with important classes of lipids; sphingolipids and cholesterol which compose the major portion of the brain particularly in the form of myelin.

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Brain is a central and pivotal organ of human body containing the highest lipids content next to adipose tissue. It works as a monitor for the whole body and needs an adequate supply of energy to maintain its physiological activities. This high demand of energy in the brain is chiefly maintained by the lipids along with its reservoirs.

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Neurodegeneration is a progressive loss of neuronal cells in certain regions of the brain. Most of the neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs) share the communal characteristic such as damage or reduction of various cell types typically including astrocytes and microglial activity. Several compounds are being trialed to treat NDDs but they possess solitary symptomatic advantages along with copious side effects.

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Neurodegenerative diseases are conventionally demarcated as disorders with selective loss of neurons. Conventional as well as newer molecules have been tested but they offer just symptomatic advantages along with abundant side effects. The discovery of more compelling molecules that can halt the pathology of these diseases will be considered as a miracle of present time.

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