Publications by authors named "Zaheer Afzal"
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the effects of molnupiravir on viral clearance, antibody response, and mutagenesis in non-hospitalized individuals within 5 days of experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, comparing it to usual care.
- Results show that while molnupiravir accelerates the decline of viral load, many participants still test positive for the virus 5 days later, and significantly lower antiviral antibodies are observed after 14 days compared to those receiving usual care.
- Serial sequencing suggests that treatment with molnupiravir leads to increased mutations of the virus, raising concerns about the emergence of potentially transmissible variants, indicating that the current treatment duration may be insufficient.
Objectives: Myeloma is characterised by the presence of monoclonal immunoglobulin (M-protein) and the free light chain (FLC) in blood. We investigated whether these M-proteins and FLC are detectable in myeloma patients' saliva to evaluate its utility for non-invasive screening and monitoring of haematological malignancies.
Methods: A total of 57 patients with monoclonal gammopathy and 26 age-matched healthy participants provided paired serum and saliva samples for immunoglobulin characterisation and quantification.
Background: Multiple myeloma is consistently preceded by monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), which is usually only treated by a form of anti-multiple myeloma therapy if it is causing substantial disease through deposition of secreted M proteins. However, studies comparing how MGUS and multiple myeloma plasma cell clones respond to these therapies are scarce. Biclonal gammopathy multiple myeloma is characterised by the coexistence of an active multiple myeloma clone and a benign MGUS clone, and thus provides a unique model to assess the responses of separate clones to the same anti-multiple myeloma therapy, in the same patient, at the same time.
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- Myeloma usually develops from a precursor condition known as MGUS, and a small percentage of MGUS patients have a second clone called BGUS. However, it's thought that myeloma often eliminates these coexisting MGUS clones.* -
- A study involving 6399 newly diagnosed myeloma patients found that only 0.91% had BGMy, significantly lower than expected, suggesting that myeloma typically eradicates competing MGUS.* -
- In cases of BGMy, the remaining MGUS clone is much smaller and does not inhibit the myeloma clone, reinforcing the idea that myeloma suppresses the presence of MGUS.*
Background: Serum free light chains (FLC) are sensitive biomarkers used for the diagnosis and management of plasma cell dyscrasias, such as multiple myeloma (MM), and are central to clinical screening algorithms and therapy response criteria. We have developed a portable, near-patient, lateral-flow test (Seralite®) that quantitates serum FLC in 10 min, and is designed to eliminate sample processing delays and accelerate decision-making in the clinic.
Methods: Assay interference, imprecision, lot-to-lot variability, linearity, and the utility of a competitive-inhibition design for the elimination of antigen-excess ('hook effect') were assessed.
Monoclonal κ and λ immunoglobulin free light chain (FLC) paraproteins in serum and urine are important markers in the diagnosis and monitoring of B cell dyscrasias. Current nephelometric and turbidimetric methods that use sheep polyclonal antisera to quantify serum FLC have a number of well-observed limitations. In this report, we describe an improved method using specific mouse anti-human FLC monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).
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