AMILIA AFZAN MOHD JAMIL - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by AMILIA AFZAN MOHD JAMIL

Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry, Jun 7, 2021

The importance of nanotechnology in medical applications especially with biomedical sensing devic... more The importance of nanotechnology in medical applications especially with biomedical sensing devices is undoubted. Several medical diagnostics have been developed by taking the advantage of nanomaterials, especially with electrical biosensors. Biosensors have been predominantly used for the quantification of different clinical biomarkers toward detection, screening, and follow-up the treatment. At present, ovarian cancer is one of the severe complications that cannot be identified until it becomes most dangerous as the advanced stage. Based on the American Cancer Society, 20% of cases involved in the detection of ovarian cancer are diagnosed at an early stage and 80% diagnosed at the later stages. The patient just has a common digestive problem and stomach ache as early symptoms and people used to ignore these symptoms. Micro ribonucleic acid (miRNA) is classified as small non-coding RNAs, their expressions change due to the association of cancer development and progression. This article reviews and discusses on the currently available strategies for the early detection of ovarian cancers using miRNA as a biomarker associated with electrical biosensors. A unique miRNA-based biomarker detections are specially highlighted with biosensor platforms to diagnose ovarian cancer.

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Apr 1, 2019

Prognosis of early cancer detection becomes one of the tremendous issues in the medical health sy... more Prognosis of early cancer detection becomes one of the tremendous issues in the medical health system. Medical debates among specialist doctor and researcher in therapeutic approaches became a hot concern for cervix cancer deficiencies early screening, risk factors cross-reaction, portability device, rapid and free labeling system. The electrical biosensing based system showed credibility in higher specificity and selectivity due to hybridization of DNA duplex between analyte target and DNA probes. Electrical DNA sensor for cervix cancer has attracted too many attentions to researcher notification based on high performance, easy to handle, rapid system and possible to miniaturize. This review explores the current progression and future insignificant for HPV E6 genobiosensing for early Detection Strategies of Cervical Cancer.

IOP conference series, Jul 10, 2020

International Medical Journal Malaysia, 2023

Thymoma is the commonest mediastinal tumour but a rare type of thymic tumour of unknown aetiology... more Thymoma is the commonest mediastinal tumour but a rare type of thymic tumour of unknown aetiology. The overall incidence of thymoma is 0.13 per 100,000 persons per year which is even rarer in pregnancy. Until this date, the specific link between thymoma and pregnancy has not been identified. Presentations are also variable and include chest pain, respiratory insufficiency, superior vena cava syndrome or non-specific symptoms like fever and weight loss. An Autoimmune paraneoplastic disease which is often linked with thymoma includes myasthenia gravis (MG), hypogammaglobinaemia, aplastic anaemia and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here we describe a case of thymoma in pregnancy who had successfully delivered and underwent surgical removal postpartum.

Environmental and Toxicology Management, 2021

The quest for alternative methods is driven by the need to provide expertise in real time in biol... more The quest for alternative methods is driven by the need to provide expertise in real time in biological fields such as medicine, pathogenic bacteria and viruses identification, food protection, and quality control. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) are examples of traditional methods that have some limitations and lengthy procedures. Biosensors are the most appealing option because they provide easy, dependable, fast, and selective detection systems compared to conventional methods. This review provides an overview of electrochemical genosensor based biosensor diagnostic system for infectious diseases detection as well as their applications, demonstrating their utility as a fast and responsive tool for detecting pathogenic bacteria, viruses, GMOs, and human diseases.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2020

This research was developed to focus on the study of the voltammetric DNA biosensor for the detec... more This research was developed to focus on the study of the voltammetric DNA biosensor for the detection of HPV strain 18. In this research, electrical DNA biosensor was expected to detect HPV strain 18 more efficiently by using electrical characterization. In this project, device inspection was conducted to make sure the functional of the gold interdigitated electrode (IDE) by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). 3-Aminopropyl Triethoxysilane (APTES) solution was used for the process of surface modification to form the amine group on the surface of the device to facilitate the attachment of the DNA probe. In this project, synthetic DNA sample and DNA from the saliva of several Biosystems Engineering students were used as the target DNA. The current-voltage (I-V) electrical characterization was conducted to detect the presence of HPV strain 18 in both DNA samples. As the results, perfect alignment between the electrodes on the IDE was detected under SEM. Surface modification of th...

Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, Oct 12, 2021

E6 region has higher protuberant probability annealing than consensus probe focusing on another r... more E6 region has higher protuberant probability annealing than consensus probe focusing on another region in Human Papillomavirus (HPV) genome in terms of detection and screening method. Here, we designed the first multiple virus ssDNA for multiple detections in an early phase of screening for cervical cancer in the E6 region and became a fundamental evolution of detection electrochemical HPV biosensor. Gene profiling of the virus ssDNA sequences have been carried by high-end bioinformatics tools such as GenBank, Basic Local Alignment Searching Tools (BLAST), and Clustal OMEGA in a row. The output from bioinformatics tools resulted in 100% of similarities between our virus ssDNA probe and HPV complete genome in the databases. The cross-validation between HPV genome and our designed virus ssDNA provided high specificity and selectivity during screening methods compared with Pap smear. The DNA probe for HPV 18, 5' COOH-GAT CCA GAA GGT ACA GAC GGG GAG GGC ACG 3' while 5'COOH-GGG CGC TGT GCA GTG TGT TGG AGA CCC CGA3' as DNA probe for HPV 58 designed with 66.77% Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C) content for both. Our virus ssDNA probe for HPV biosensor promising high sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, repeatability, low fluid consumption, and mini-size diagnostic devices. Bioinformatics tools such as GenBank, Basic Local Alignment Searching Tools (BLAST), and Clustal OMEGA assist in analyzing and designing 30-mer of virus ssDNA as a probe in this study. Virus ssDNA probes prove higher selectivity, sensitivity, and specificity on different target sequences for HPV 16, 18, and 58. Surface modification via nanotechnology self-assemble layer of gold-nanoparticles (AuNPs) on large volume to ratio Interdigitated Electrodes (IDE) for developing HPV biosensor (future work). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins

MEANDCOVID19

Introduction: Hybrid teaching method has been implemented in majority of medical schools to adapt... more Introduction: Hybrid teaching method has been implemented in majority of medical schools to adapt with the Covid pandemic era. With this integrated method, we aim to determine the student’s experience, satisfaction and barriers of hybrid undergraduate teaching in obstetrics & gynaecology posting. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among medical students undergoing hybrid teaching during obstetrics & gynaecology posting in the year of 2020 and 2021. Participants were 112 fourth and fifth year medical students whom were affected by the pandemic. Online questionnaires through Google forms were distributed to all eligible students. The questionnaire consists of four sections: socio-demographic, experience, satisfaction and barriers. Results: The response rate was 75%. Majority (90.2%) of the respondents were satisfied with the hybrid teaching. Among the barriers that sometimes encountered by our students were inability to adjust learning style, lack of technical skills, ment...

BMC Women's Health

Background Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most prevalent mental health disorder after childbi... more Background Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most prevalent mental health disorder after childbirth, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, PPD is known to have a long-term influence on the mother and the newborn, and the role of social support network is crucial in early illness recognition. This study aims to evaluate the social support networks’ level of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding PPD and examine their sociodemographic variables and exposure to the public information relating to PPD during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted via an online Google Form disseminated to people in Klang Valley through WhatsApp, Email, Facebook, Instagram and other available social media among postpartum women’s social support networks aged 18 years and living in the Klang Valley area (N = 394). Data were collected from 1 March to 5 July 2021 and analysed using the Mann–Whitney U-test and generalised linear mixed models. Results ...

Clinical Case Reports, 2021

Steroid cell tumors not otherwise specified are one of the rare virilizing ovarian tumors. Most o... more Steroid cell tumors not otherwise specified are one of the rare virilizing ovarian tumors. Most of the tumors are benign. This case report illustrates the challenge in managing steroid cell tumor not otherwise specified, which starts from determining its malignant potential, surveillance, and adjuvant treatment option.

BioMedicine, 2022

Background: Despite the efforts to encourage the intake of nutritional supplements during antenat... more Background: Despite the efforts to encourage the intake of nutritional supplements during antenatal periods, there are still many cases of anemia and protein-energy malnutrition during pregnancy. Hence, this study determined the incidence of anemia, protein-energy malnutrition, and associated risk factors among pregnant women in Abuja, Nigeria. Materials and methods: This hospital-based, case-control study involved randomly selected 176 pregnant and nonpregnant women attending the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, Nigeria. Hemoglobin and hematocrit measurements were used to determine anemia incidence, while plasma protein, zinc levels and body mass index (BMI) were used to determine energy index status. Complete blood counts were analyzed using 5 parts-automatic hemo-analyzer, while plasma protein and zinc were analyzed using calorimetric method. Anemia and protein-energy malnutrition were defined using the World Health Organization (WHO) cutoff values. Results: The mean age of participants was 28.75 ± 5.22 years. Out of 176 participants, 7 (4%) were malnourished while 25% of the participants were anemic. Anemia was significantly associated with participants' occupation (p ¼ 0.002), parity (p˂0.001) and gestational age (p˂0.001). Most hematological indices, plasma globulin, albumin, protein, and zinc levels were significantly different (p˂0.001) among non-pregnant and pregnant women of the first, second and third trimesters. Conclusion: The incidence of anemia and malnutrition was high among study participants. There is a need for improved nutritional intervention, increased awareness and strengthening of health systems in the area of maternal health in Nigeria.

Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their hos... more Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their host. They exhibit characteristics that make them potential alternative treatments to address the antimicrobial resistance conundrum and diseases. Their mechanism of action varies with strain and species. Five lactobacilli strains previously isolated from the anogenital region were subjected to several assessments highlighted in the FAO/WHO document, ‘Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food’ to determine its suitability as potential probiotics. Methods: The five lactobacilli strains were subcultured onto Man de Rogosa agar (MRS). Their ability to autoand co-aggregate was determined spectrophotometrically. Simultaneously, the cell surface hydrophobic properties of these strains towards xylene and toluene were evaluated using the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) test. The lactobacilli strains were also tested for their ability to withstand acid, bile and spermicide to dete...

Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their hos... more Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their host. They exhibit characteristics that make them potential alternative treatments to address the antimicrobial resistance conundrum and diseases. Their mechanism of action varies with strain and species. Five lactobacilli strains previously isolated from the anogenital region were subjected to several assessments highlighted in the FAO/WHO document, ‘Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food’ to determine its suitability as potential probiotics. Methods: The five lactobacilli strains were subcultured onto Man de Rogosa agar (MRS). Their ability to autoand co-aggregate was determined spectrophotometrically. Simultaneously, the cell surface hydrophobic properties of these strains towards xylene and toluene were evaluated using the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) test. The lactobacilli strains were also tested for their ability to withstand acid, bile and spermicide to dete...

Objective: Perinatal morbidity and mortality were well-associated with preterm births. Spontaneou... more Objective: Perinatal morbidity and mortality were well-associated with preterm births. Spontaneous preterm births as a single entity or preterm births in general were commonly used in identification of risk factors. These factors, however, are lacking due to absence of subtypespecific aetiologies. In this investigation, risk factors linked with spontaneous preterm births with intact membrane were investigated. Methods: This case-control study using secondary data was conducted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Hospital Serdang, Malaysia over the course of three years. A total of 1,559 Malay pregnant women were involved. It consisted of subjects with spontaneous preterm labours with intact membrane, and the controls consisted of matched pregnant women with term delivery. Information in terms of socio-demographic factors, history of prior pregnancies, maternal health during pregnancy, foetal characteristics, and biophysical profile were taken from the patients’ medical ...

International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences, 2016

Background: There are few neonatal complications of breech delivery including the low Apgar score... more Background: There are few neonatal complications of breech delivery including the low Apgar score, birth trauma, admission to neonatal unit and perinatal mortality. Objective: To review the short term complications and their associating factors among singleton term breech infants in relation to mode of delivery. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study that involves 294 term singleton pregnant women with breech presentation in Hospital Serdang, Malaysia from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015. Data abstracted from the delivery record book and the hospital database computerised system were used to compare the short term outcomes of singleton term breech infants born via vaginal breech delivery and pre-labour or in-labour caesarean section. Results: Out of 294 cases, 25% (n=73) displayed a successful vaginal delivery, whereas the remaining 75% (n=221) have undergone caesarean delivery. It was more common in multiparous women (64.3%) and frank-typed of breech (59.9%) is more prev...

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2020

The aim of this work was to develop a novel, simple, inexpensive, sensitive an electrochemical DN... more The aim of this work was to develop a novel, simple, inexpensive, sensitive an electrochemical DNA biosensor based on interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) integrated gold nanoparticle modified electrode by electro less deposition for HPV 18. The biosensor was designed with a 30 mer E6 region of HPV 18 DNA modified probe. The E6 region has been used for their clinical importance properties and suitable as recognition biomarker region. Three different target types were tested which complementary target, non-complementary target and mismatch target. All target were analyzed for detection of HPV 18 in early stages by using Dielectric Analyzer (DA), Alpha-A High-performance Frequency Analyzer, Novocontrol Technologies, Handsagen, Germany associated with the software package Windeta. Complementary target gives a positive result in HPV detection, while non-complementary and mismatch target give negative results. IDE device with 5 nm gap sizes has demonstrated a high performance towards the det...

Electrophoresis - Life Sciences Practical Applications, Sep 12, 2018

Spontaneous unexplained preterm labor with intact membrane (sPTL-IM) remains as an unresolved cha... more Spontaneous unexplained preterm labor with intact membrane (sPTL-IM) remains as an unresolved challenge in obstetrics due to the complex syndromes involved during preterm birth. Two dimensional-gel electrophoresis (2D-GE) coupled with matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight/time of flight (MALDI TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry has become an alternative in screening for potential novel protein-based biomarkers and revealing the pathophysiology of sPTL-IM. To achieve this objective, protein extracted from fetal and maternal sides of the placenta obtained from sPTL-IM (n = 5) and the respective control (n = 10) groups were separated and compared using 2D-gel electrophoresis. MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry was utilized to identify the differentially expressed proteins between both groups, and the molecular functions of these proteins were studied. A total of 12 proteins were significantly differentiated in sPTL-IM over the control. Differentially expressed proteins were identified to have involved in structural/cytoskeletal components, immune responses, fetal and placenta development, and anticoagulation cascade. More proteins were found to be differentially expressed in the fetal side compared to the maternal side of the placenta. This postulates that the influence of sPTL-IM from fetus is greater than that of the mother. Ultimately, these results might lead to further investigations in elucidating the potential of these proteins as biomarkers and/or drug targets.

Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry, Jun 7, 2021

The importance of nanotechnology in medical applications especially with biomedical sensing devic... more The importance of nanotechnology in medical applications especially with biomedical sensing devices is undoubted. Several medical diagnostics have been developed by taking the advantage of nanomaterials, especially with electrical biosensors. Biosensors have been predominantly used for the quantification of different clinical biomarkers toward detection, screening, and follow-up the treatment. At present, ovarian cancer is one of the severe complications that cannot be identified until it becomes most dangerous as the advanced stage. Based on the American Cancer Society, 20% of cases involved in the detection of ovarian cancer are diagnosed at an early stage and 80% diagnosed at the later stages. The patient just has a common digestive problem and stomach ache as early symptoms and people used to ignore these symptoms. Micro ribonucleic acid (miRNA) is classified as small non-coding RNAs, their expressions change due to the association of cancer development and progression. This article reviews and discusses on the currently available strategies for the early detection of ovarian cancers using miRNA as a biomarker associated with electrical biosensors. A unique miRNA-based biomarker detections are specially highlighted with biosensor platforms to diagnose ovarian cancer.

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Apr 1, 2019

Prognosis of early cancer detection becomes one of the tremendous issues in the medical health sy... more Prognosis of early cancer detection becomes one of the tremendous issues in the medical health system. Medical debates among specialist doctor and researcher in therapeutic approaches became a hot concern for cervix cancer deficiencies early screening, risk factors cross-reaction, portability device, rapid and free labeling system. The electrical biosensing based system showed credibility in higher specificity and selectivity due to hybridization of DNA duplex between analyte target and DNA probes. Electrical DNA sensor for cervix cancer has attracted too many attentions to researcher notification based on high performance, easy to handle, rapid system and possible to miniaturize. This review explores the current progression and future insignificant for HPV E6 genobiosensing for early Detection Strategies of Cervical Cancer.

IOP conference series, Jul 10, 2020

International Medical Journal Malaysia, 2023

Thymoma is the commonest mediastinal tumour but a rare type of thymic tumour of unknown aetiology... more Thymoma is the commonest mediastinal tumour but a rare type of thymic tumour of unknown aetiology. The overall incidence of thymoma is 0.13 per 100,000 persons per year which is even rarer in pregnancy. Until this date, the specific link between thymoma and pregnancy has not been identified. Presentations are also variable and include chest pain, respiratory insufficiency, superior vena cava syndrome or non-specific symptoms like fever and weight loss. An Autoimmune paraneoplastic disease which is often linked with thymoma includes myasthenia gravis (MG), hypogammaglobinaemia, aplastic anaemia and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here we describe a case of thymoma in pregnancy who had successfully delivered and underwent surgical removal postpartum.

Environmental and Toxicology Management, 2021

The quest for alternative methods is driven by the need to provide expertise in real time in biol... more The quest for alternative methods is driven by the need to provide expertise in real time in biological fields such as medicine, pathogenic bacteria and viruses identification, food protection, and quality control. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) are examples of traditional methods that have some limitations and lengthy procedures. Biosensors are the most appealing option because they provide easy, dependable, fast, and selective detection systems compared to conventional methods. This review provides an overview of electrochemical genosensor based biosensor diagnostic system for infectious diseases detection as well as their applications, demonstrating their utility as a fast and responsive tool for detecting pathogenic bacteria, viruses, GMOs, and human diseases.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2020

This research was developed to focus on the study of the voltammetric DNA biosensor for the detec... more This research was developed to focus on the study of the voltammetric DNA biosensor for the detection of HPV strain 18. In this research, electrical DNA biosensor was expected to detect HPV strain 18 more efficiently by using electrical characterization. In this project, device inspection was conducted to make sure the functional of the gold interdigitated electrode (IDE) by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). 3-Aminopropyl Triethoxysilane (APTES) solution was used for the process of surface modification to form the amine group on the surface of the device to facilitate the attachment of the DNA probe. In this project, synthetic DNA sample and DNA from the saliva of several Biosystems Engineering students were used as the target DNA. The current-voltage (I-V) electrical characterization was conducted to detect the presence of HPV strain 18 in both DNA samples. As the results, perfect alignment between the electrodes on the IDE was detected under SEM. Surface modification of th...

Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, Oct 12, 2021

E6 region has higher protuberant probability annealing than consensus probe focusing on another r... more E6 region has higher protuberant probability annealing than consensus probe focusing on another region in Human Papillomavirus (HPV) genome in terms of detection and screening method. Here, we designed the first multiple virus ssDNA for multiple detections in an early phase of screening for cervical cancer in the E6 region and became a fundamental evolution of detection electrochemical HPV biosensor. Gene profiling of the virus ssDNA sequences have been carried by high-end bioinformatics tools such as GenBank, Basic Local Alignment Searching Tools (BLAST), and Clustal OMEGA in a row. The output from bioinformatics tools resulted in 100% of similarities between our virus ssDNA probe and HPV complete genome in the databases. The cross-validation between HPV genome and our designed virus ssDNA provided high specificity and selectivity during screening methods compared with Pap smear. The DNA probe for HPV 18, 5' COOH-GAT CCA GAA GGT ACA GAC GGG GAG GGC ACG 3' while 5'COOH-GGG CGC TGT GCA GTG TGT TGG AGA CCC CGA3' as DNA probe for HPV 58 designed with 66.77% Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C) content for both. Our virus ssDNA probe for HPV biosensor promising high sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, repeatability, low fluid consumption, and mini-size diagnostic devices. Bioinformatics tools such as GenBank, Basic Local Alignment Searching Tools (BLAST), and Clustal OMEGA assist in analyzing and designing 30-mer of virus ssDNA as a probe in this study. Virus ssDNA probes prove higher selectivity, sensitivity, and specificity on different target sequences for HPV 16, 18, and 58. Surface modification via nanotechnology self-assemble layer of gold-nanoparticles (AuNPs) on large volume to ratio Interdigitated Electrodes (IDE) for developing HPV biosensor (future work). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins

MEANDCOVID19

Introduction: Hybrid teaching method has been implemented in majority of medical schools to adapt... more Introduction: Hybrid teaching method has been implemented in majority of medical schools to adapt with the Covid pandemic era. With this integrated method, we aim to determine the student’s experience, satisfaction and barriers of hybrid undergraduate teaching in obstetrics & gynaecology posting. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among medical students undergoing hybrid teaching during obstetrics & gynaecology posting in the year of 2020 and 2021. Participants were 112 fourth and fifth year medical students whom were affected by the pandemic. Online questionnaires through Google forms were distributed to all eligible students. The questionnaire consists of four sections: socio-demographic, experience, satisfaction and barriers. Results: The response rate was 75%. Majority (90.2%) of the respondents were satisfied with the hybrid teaching. Among the barriers that sometimes encountered by our students were inability to adjust learning style, lack of technical skills, ment...

BMC Women's Health

Background Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most prevalent mental health disorder after childbi... more Background Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most prevalent mental health disorder after childbirth, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, PPD is known to have a long-term influence on the mother and the newborn, and the role of social support network is crucial in early illness recognition. This study aims to evaluate the social support networks’ level of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding PPD and examine their sociodemographic variables and exposure to the public information relating to PPD during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted via an online Google Form disseminated to people in Klang Valley through WhatsApp, Email, Facebook, Instagram and other available social media among postpartum women’s social support networks aged 18 years and living in the Klang Valley area (N = 394). Data were collected from 1 March to 5 July 2021 and analysed using the Mann–Whitney U-test and generalised linear mixed models. Results ...

Clinical Case Reports, 2021

Steroid cell tumors not otherwise specified are one of the rare virilizing ovarian tumors. Most o... more Steroid cell tumors not otherwise specified are one of the rare virilizing ovarian tumors. Most of the tumors are benign. This case report illustrates the challenge in managing steroid cell tumor not otherwise specified, which starts from determining its malignant potential, surveillance, and adjuvant treatment option.

BioMedicine, 2022

Background: Despite the efforts to encourage the intake of nutritional supplements during antenat... more Background: Despite the efforts to encourage the intake of nutritional supplements during antenatal periods, there are still many cases of anemia and protein-energy malnutrition during pregnancy. Hence, this study determined the incidence of anemia, protein-energy malnutrition, and associated risk factors among pregnant women in Abuja, Nigeria. Materials and methods: This hospital-based, case-control study involved randomly selected 176 pregnant and nonpregnant women attending the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, Nigeria. Hemoglobin and hematocrit measurements were used to determine anemia incidence, while plasma protein, zinc levels and body mass index (BMI) were used to determine energy index status. Complete blood counts were analyzed using 5 parts-automatic hemo-analyzer, while plasma protein and zinc were analyzed using calorimetric method. Anemia and protein-energy malnutrition were defined using the World Health Organization (WHO) cutoff values. Results: The mean age of participants was 28.75 ± 5.22 years. Out of 176 participants, 7 (4%) were malnourished while 25% of the participants were anemic. Anemia was significantly associated with participants' occupation (p ¼ 0.002), parity (p˂0.001) and gestational age (p˂0.001). Most hematological indices, plasma globulin, albumin, protein, and zinc levels were significantly different (p˂0.001) among non-pregnant and pregnant women of the first, second and third trimesters. Conclusion: The incidence of anemia and malnutrition was high among study participants. There is a need for improved nutritional intervention, increased awareness and strengthening of health systems in the area of maternal health in Nigeria.

Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their hos... more Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their host. They exhibit characteristics that make them potential alternative treatments to address the antimicrobial resistance conundrum and diseases. Their mechanism of action varies with strain and species. Five lactobacilli strains previously isolated from the anogenital region were subjected to several assessments highlighted in the FAO/WHO document, ‘Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food’ to determine its suitability as potential probiotics. Methods: The five lactobacilli strains were subcultured onto Man de Rogosa agar (MRS). Their ability to autoand co-aggregate was determined spectrophotometrically. Simultaneously, the cell surface hydrophobic properties of these strains towards xylene and toluene were evaluated using the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) test. The lactobacilli strains were also tested for their ability to withstand acid, bile and spermicide to dete...

Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their hos... more Introduction: Lactobacilli are well-documented probiotics that exert health benefits on their host. They exhibit characteristics that make them potential alternative treatments to address the antimicrobial resistance conundrum and diseases. Their mechanism of action varies with strain and species. Five lactobacilli strains previously isolated from the anogenital region were subjected to several assessments highlighted in the FAO/WHO document, ‘Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food’ to determine its suitability as potential probiotics. Methods: The five lactobacilli strains were subcultured onto Man de Rogosa agar (MRS). Their ability to autoand co-aggregate was determined spectrophotometrically. Simultaneously, the cell surface hydrophobic properties of these strains towards xylene and toluene were evaluated using the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) test. The lactobacilli strains were also tested for their ability to withstand acid, bile and spermicide to dete...

Objective: Perinatal morbidity and mortality were well-associated with preterm births. Spontaneou... more Objective: Perinatal morbidity and mortality were well-associated with preterm births. Spontaneous preterm births as a single entity or preterm births in general were commonly used in identification of risk factors. These factors, however, are lacking due to absence of subtypespecific aetiologies. In this investigation, risk factors linked with spontaneous preterm births with intact membrane were investigated. Methods: This case-control study using secondary data was conducted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Hospital Serdang, Malaysia over the course of three years. A total of 1,559 Malay pregnant women were involved. It consisted of subjects with spontaneous preterm labours with intact membrane, and the controls consisted of matched pregnant women with term delivery. Information in terms of socio-demographic factors, history of prior pregnancies, maternal health during pregnancy, foetal characteristics, and biophysical profile were taken from the patients’ medical ...

International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences, 2016

Background: There are few neonatal complications of breech delivery including the low Apgar score... more Background: There are few neonatal complications of breech delivery including the low Apgar score, birth trauma, admission to neonatal unit and perinatal mortality. Objective: To review the short term complications and their associating factors among singleton term breech infants in relation to mode of delivery. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study that involves 294 term singleton pregnant women with breech presentation in Hospital Serdang, Malaysia from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015. Data abstracted from the delivery record book and the hospital database computerised system were used to compare the short term outcomes of singleton term breech infants born via vaginal breech delivery and pre-labour or in-labour caesarean section. Results: Out of 294 cases, 25% (n=73) displayed a successful vaginal delivery, whereas the remaining 75% (n=221) have undergone caesarean delivery. It was more common in multiparous women (64.3%) and frank-typed of breech (59.9%) is more prev...

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2020

The aim of this work was to develop a novel, simple, inexpensive, sensitive an electrochemical DN... more The aim of this work was to develop a novel, simple, inexpensive, sensitive an electrochemical DNA biosensor based on interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) integrated gold nanoparticle modified electrode by electro less deposition for HPV 18. The biosensor was designed with a 30 mer E6 region of HPV 18 DNA modified probe. The E6 region has been used for their clinical importance properties and suitable as recognition biomarker region. Three different target types were tested which complementary target, non-complementary target and mismatch target. All target were analyzed for detection of HPV 18 in early stages by using Dielectric Analyzer (DA), Alpha-A High-performance Frequency Analyzer, Novocontrol Technologies, Handsagen, Germany associated with the software package Windeta. Complementary target gives a positive result in HPV detection, while non-complementary and mismatch target give negative results. IDE device with 5 nm gap sizes has demonstrated a high performance towards the det...

Electrophoresis - Life Sciences Practical Applications, Sep 12, 2018

Spontaneous unexplained preterm labor with intact membrane (sPTL-IM) remains as an unresolved cha... more Spontaneous unexplained preterm labor with intact membrane (sPTL-IM) remains as an unresolved challenge in obstetrics due to the complex syndromes involved during preterm birth. Two dimensional-gel electrophoresis (2D-GE) coupled with matrixassisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight/time of flight (MALDI TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry has become an alternative in screening for potential novel protein-based biomarkers and revealing the pathophysiology of sPTL-IM. To achieve this objective, protein extracted from fetal and maternal sides of the placenta obtained from sPTL-IM (n = 5) and the respective control (n = 10) groups were separated and compared using 2D-gel electrophoresis. MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry was utilized to identify the differentially expressed proteins between both groups, and the molecular functions of these proteins were studied. A total of 12 proteins were significantly differentiated in sPTL-IM over the control. Differentially expressed proteins were identified to have involved in structural/cytoskeletal components, immune responses, fetal and placenta development, and anticoagulation cascade. More proteins were found to be differentially expressed in the fetal side compared to the maternal side of the placenta. This postulates that the influence of sPTL-IM from fetus is greater than that of the mother. Ultimately, these results might lead to further investigations in elucidating the potential of these proteins as biomarkers and/or drug targets.