International journal of engineering research and technology, 2020
The source of water pollution caused by industrial effluents and other sources in Nigeria with a ... more The source of water pollution caused by industrial effluents and other sources in Nigeria with a view to provide useful information to the authorities on the management, control and investigation of pollution cases, water quality surveillance and forecasting water quality in the country. Literature on the subject matter sources and effect was accessed through published and unpublished materials on the subject as well as browsing of related issues on the internet. The result shows that sources of pollution account for several point sources of water pollution, while developed nations adopt stringent water quality requirements to control river pollution from point and non-point sources, the situation is different in most developing countries like Nigeria. Waste water treatment in Nigeria is not given the necessary priority it deserves and therefore, industrial waste discharged into receiving water bodies without treatment and the effect of these include, among others, river pollution, ...
The economic and humanistic impact of COVID-19 pandemic is enormous globally. No definitive treat... more The economic and humanistic impact of COVID-19 pandemic is enormous globally. No definitive treatment exists, hence accelerated development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines, offers a unique opportunity for COVID-19 prevention and control. Vaccine hesitancy may limit the success of vaccine distribution in Africa, therefore we assessed the potentials for coronavirus vaccine hesitancy and its determinants among Africans. An online cross-sectional African-wide survey was administered in Arabic, English, and French languages. Questions on demographics, self-reported health status, vaccine literacy, knowledge and perception on vaccines, past experience, behavior, infection risk, willingness to receive and affordability of the SARS-COV-2 vaccine were asked. Data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 5,416 individuals completed the survey. Approximately, 94% were residents of 34 African countries while the other Africans live in the Diaspora. Only 63% of all ...
Community Participation in health (CPIH) has been touted as the panacea to many health care deliv... more Community Participation in health (CPIH) has been touted as the panacea to many health care delivery problems. For several decades, WHO and its allied agencies have churned out evidence of the efficacy of community participation in improving many health care outcomes across several countries. However, there is paucity of evidence with regards to its contribution in the reduction of maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paucity of information on the subject has necessitated the need for evidence-based research on the contribution of CPIH to maternal health outcomes within the context of MDG 5. This study examined the nature and level of Community Participation in maternal health issues in Gbanko, and the accompanying health outcomes using a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected from various key informants selected from a rural community setting and staff of the Ghana Health Service. Results indicate a high level of Community Participation in maternal and child...
Air particulate matter exposure has been linked to cardiovascular and atherosclerosis as a result... more Air particulate matter exposure has been linked to cardiovascular and atherosclerosis as a result of increase oxidative stress and inflammatory response. This study aims to determine the effect of the use of hesperetin (HESP) as a therapeutic agent to mitigate the cardiovascular oxidative and pro-inflammatory effects of diesel exhaust particles in Wistar rats. DEP was collected from an Iveco cargo engine truck, and n-hexane fraction (hDEP) was obtained. Forty Wistar strains of male albino rats (6 weeks) were divided into 8 groups: control group received DMSO and CMC-Na; other groups received either n-hexane extract of DEP (0.064 or 0.640 mg/kg hDEP) or Standard Reference Material 2975 (0.064 mg/kg hSRM) in the presence or absence of 200 mg/kg HESP. Extracts were administered orally. Serum lipids, lipid peroxidation (LPO), conjugated dienes (CDs), and GSH levels were determined. Also, inflammatory cytokines, PCSK-9, LDL-receptor, and antioxidant genes expression were assessed by RT-PCR in both the heart and aorta. The molecular interaction of targeted proteins with HESP was assessed by the in silico approach. Extracts of DEP caused a significant (p < 0.001) increase in serum lipids but significantly decreased HDL-CHOL. It also increased CDs and MDA levels but decreased GSH levels. In addition, the particulate extracts caused a significant (p < 0.001) increase in pro-inflammatory genes expression in the heart and aorta but significantly decreased IL-10 and LDL-R gene expressions. Pre-treatment with hesperetin significantly reversed all these effects. This study shows that hesperetin has the ability to protect against DEP-induced oxidative stress and inflammation in the cardiovascular system.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic factor involved in tumor growth and me... more Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic factor involved in tumor growth and metastasis. Gremlin has been proposed as a novel therapeutic pathway for the treatment of renal inflammatory diseases, acting via VEGFR 2 receptor. To date, most FDA-approved tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitors have been reported as dual inhibitors of EGFR and VEGFR 2. The aim of the present study was to find the potent and selective inhibitor of VEGFR 2 specifically for the treatment of renal cancer. Fourteen previously identified anti-inflammatory compounds i.e., 1, 3, 4 oxadiazoles derivatives by our own group were selected for their anti-cancer potential, targeting the tyrosine kinase (TK) domain of VEGFR2 and EGFR. A detailed virtual screening-based study was designed viz density functional theory (DFT) study to find the compounds’ stability and reactivity, molecular docking for estimating binding affinity, SeeSAR analysis and molecular dynamic simulations to confirm protein ligand comple...
Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Apr 26, 2023
Background Prostate cancer (PC) is a silent but potent killer among men. In 2018, PC accounted fo... more Background Prostate cancer (PC) is a silent but potent killer among men. In 2018, PC accounted for more than 350, 000 death cases while more than 1.2 million cases were diagnosed. Docetaxel, a chemotherapeutic drug belonging to the taxane family of drugs, is one of the most potent drugs in combating advanced PC. However, PC cells often evolve resistance against the regimen. Hence, necessitating the search for complementary and alternative therapies. Quercetin, a ubiquitous phytocompound with numerous pharmacological properties, has been reported to reverse docetaxel resistance (DR) in docetaxel-resistant prostate cancer (DRPC). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the mechanism via which quercetin reverses DR in DRPC using an integrative functional network and exploratory cancer genomic data analyses. Results The putative targets of quercetin were retrieved from relevant databases, while the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in docetaxel-resistant prostate cancer (DRPC) were identified by analysing microarray data retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Subsequently, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the overlapping genes between the DEGs and quercetin targets was retrieved from STRING, while the hub genes, which represent the key interacting genes of the network, were identified using the CytoHubba plug-in of Cytoscape. The hub genes were further subjected to a comprehensive analysis aimed at identifying their contribution to the immune microenvironment and overall survival (OS) of PC patients, while their alterations in PC patients were also revealed. The biological roles played by the hub genes in chemotherapeutic resistance include the positive regulation of developmental process, positive regulation of gene expression, negative regulation of cell death, and epithelial cell differentiation among others. Conclusion Further analysis revealed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) as the most pertinent target of quercetin in reversing DR in DRPC, while molecular docking simulation revealed an effective interaction between quercetin and EGFR. Ultimately, this study provides a scientific rationale for the further exploration of quercetin as a combinational therapy with docetaxel.
International journal of engineering research and technology, 2020
The source of water pollution caused by industrial effluents and other sources in Nigeria with a ... more The source of water pollution caused by industrial effluents and other sources in Nigeria with a view to provide useful information to the authorities on the management, control and investigation of pollution cases, water quality surveillance and forecasting water quality in the country. Literature on the subject matter sources and effect was accessed through published and unpublished materials on the subject as well as browsing of related issues on the internet. The result shows that sources of pollution account for several point sources of water pollution, while developed nations adopt stringent water quality requirements to control river pollution from point and non-point sources, the situation is different in most developing countries like Nigeria. Waste water treatment in Nigeria is not given the necessary priority it deserves and therefore, industrial waste discharged into receiving water bodies without treatment and the effect of these include, among others, river pollution, ...
The economic and humanistic impact of COVID-19 pandemic is enormous globally. No definitive treat... more The economic and humanistic impact of COVID-19 pandemic is enormous globally. No definitive treatment exists, hence accelerated development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines, offers a unique opportunity for COVID-19 prevention and control. Vaccine hesitancy may limit the success of vaccine distribution in Africa, therefore we assessed the potentials for coronavirus vaccine hesitancy and its determinants among Africans. An online cross-sectional African-wide survey was administered in Arabic, English, and French languages. Questions on demographics, self-reported health status, vaccine literacy, knowledge and perception on vaccines, past experience, behavior, infection risk, willingness to receive and affordability of the SARS-COV-2 vaccine were asked. Data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 5,416 individuals completed the survey. Approximately, 94% were residents of 34 African countries while the other Africans live in the Diaspora. Only 63% of all ...
Community Participation in health (CPIH) has been touted as the panacea to many health care deliv... more Community Participation in health (CPIH) has been touted as the panacea to many health care delivery problems. For several decades, WHO and its allied agencies have churned out evidence of the efficacy of community participation in improving many health care outcomes across several countries. However, there is paucity of evidence with regards to its contribution in the reduction of maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paucity of information on the subject has necessitated the need for evidence-based research on the contribution of CPIH to maternal health outcomes within the context of MDG 5. This study examined the nature and level of Community Participation in maternal health issues in Gbanko, and the accompanying health outcomes using a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected from various key informants selected from a rural community setting and staff of the Ghana Health Service. Results indicate a high level of Community Participation in maternal and child...
Air particulate matter exposure has been linked to cardiovascular and atherosclerosis as a result... more Air particulate matter exposure has been linked to cardiovascular and atherosclerosis as a result of increase oxidative stress and inflammatory response. This study aims to determine the effect of the use of hesperetin (HESP) as a therapeutic agent to mitigate the cardiovascular oxidative and pro-inflammatory effects of diesel exhaust particles in Wistar rats. DEP was collected from an Iveco cargo engine truck, and n-hexane fraction (hDEP) was obtained. Forty Wistar strains of male albino rats (6 weeks) were divided into 8 groups: control group received DMSO and CMC-Na; other groups received either n-hexane extract of DEP (0.064 or 0.640 mg/kg hDEP) or Standard Reference Material 2975 (0.064 mg/kg hSRM) in the presence or absence of 200 mg/kg HESP. Extracts were administered orally. Serum lipids, lipid peroxidation (LPO), conjugated dienes (CDs), and GSH levels were determined. Also, inflammatory cytokines, PCSK-9, LDL-receptor, and antioxidant genes expression were assessed by RT-PCR in both the heart and aorta. The molecular interaction of targeted proteins with HESP was assessed by the in silico approach. Extracts of DEP caused a significant (p < 0.001) increase in serum lipids but significantly decreased HDL-CHOL. It also increased CDs and MDA levels but decreased GSH levels. In addition, the particulate extracts caused a significant (p < 0.001) increase in pro-inflammatory genes expression in the heart and aorta but significantly decreased IL-10 and LDL-R gene expressions. Pre-treatment with hesperetin significantly reversed all these effects. This study shows that hesperetin has the ability to protect against DEP-induced oxidative stress and inflammation in the cardiovascular system.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic factor involved in tumor growth and me... more Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic factor involved in tumor growth and metastasis. Gremlin has been proposed as a novel therapeutic pathway for the treatment of renal inflammatory diseases, acting via VEGFR 2 receptor. To date, most FDA-approved tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitors have been reported as dual inhibitors of EGFR and VEGFR 2. The aim of the present study was to find the potent and selective inhibitor of VEGFR 2 specifically for the treatment of renal cancer. Fourteen previously identified anti-inflammatory compounds i.e., 1, 3, 4 oxadiazoles derivatives by our own group were selected for their anti-cancer potential, targeting the tyrosine kinase (TK) domain of VEGFR2 and EGFR. A detailed virtual screening-based study was designed viz density functional theory (DFT) study to find the compounds’ stability and reactivity, molecular docking for estimating binding affinity, SeeSAR analysis and molecular dynamic simulations to confirm protein ligand comple...
Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Apr 26, 2023
Background Prostate cancer (PC) is a silent but potent killer among men. In 2018, PC accounted fo... more Background Prostate cancer (PC) is a silent but potent killer among men. In 2018, PC accounted for more than 350, 000 death cases while more than 1.2 million cases were diagnosed. Docetaxel, a chemotherapeutic drug belonging to the taxane family of drugs, is one of the most potent drugs in combating advanced PC. However, PC cells often evolve resistance against the regimen. Hence, necessitating the search for complementary and alternative therapies. Quercetin, a ubiquitous phytocompound with numerous pharmacological properties, has been reported to reverse docetaxel resistance (DR) in docetaxel-resistant prostate cancer (DRPC). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the mechanism via which quercetin reverses DR in DRPC using an integrative functional network and exploratory cancer genomic data analyses. Results The putative targets of quercetin were retrieved from relevant databases, while the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in docetaxel-resistant prostate cancer (DRPC) were identified by analysing microarray data retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Subsequently, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the overlapping genes between the DEGs and quercetin targets was retrieved from STRING, while the hub genes, which represent the key interacting genes of the network, were identified using the CytoHubba plug-in of Cytoscape. The hub genes were further subjected to a comprehensive analysis aimed at identifying their contribution to the immune microenvironment and overall survival (OS) of PC patients, while their alterations in PC patients were also revealed. The biological roles played by the hub genes in chemotherapeutic resistance include the positive regulation of developmental process, positive regulation of gene expression, negative regulation of cell death, and epithelial cell differentiation among others. Conclusion Further analysis revealed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) as the most pertinent target of quercetin in reversing DR in DRPC, while molecular docking simulation revealed an effective interaction between quercetin and EGFR. Ultimately, this study provides a scientific rationale for the further exploration of quercetin as a combinational therapy with docetaxel.
Uploads
Papers by Haruna Umar