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Research Project: Chronic stress as a risk factor for poor prognosis and reduced overall survival n hepatocellular carcinoma patients
Abstract
Emotional stress-associated epigenetic alterations are believed to be one of the causes of poor prognosis and reduced survival in cancer patients. The present study aimed to investigate the peripheral expression profiles of chronic stress-associated markers (AVPR1a, PHF21B, 5-HTT) as well as tumor biomarker (FSCN1) in hepatocellular carcinoma patients to investigate the role of emotional stress in disease prognosis. Moreover, this work focused to find the potential molecular link between chronic stress and progression of cancer. We observed downregulation in expression of AVPR1a and PHF21B, however, 5-HTT was upregulated in HCC patients as compared to controls. Furthermore, FSCN1 expression was directly correlated with emotional stress scores in controls as well as patients. Chronically stressed HCC patients experienced extreme upregulation of FSCN1 mRNA levels as compared to HCC patients having normal stress score levels. Our results reveal that HCC patients experiencing chronic emotional stress are more prone to reduced surivival rate and poor prognosis of the disease through upregulation of FSCN1. Moreover, it suggests that FSCN1 might act as a critical biomarker for HCC’s poor prognosis and reduced survival probabilities.
Education
M.Phil. (Molecular Pathology and Genomics)
Forman Christian College (A chartered university)
BS(Hons) Biotechnology
University of Management and Technology
Work Experience
Research Committee Lead at HybridMedics
Teaching assistant for the course of Medical Biotechnology and Immunology at Forman Christian College (A Chartered University)
Internship
Food and Biotechnology Research Center (FBRC), Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Lahore
Publications
Molecular immunological mechanisms of impaired wound healing in diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), current therapeutic strategies and future directions. (Full text)
Recent developments in targeting breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs): a descriptive review of therapeutic strategies and emerging therapies. (Full text)
Benign and conserved DNA variants m.8860 A > G and m.8701 A > G indicating mitochondrial genetic drift in Pakistani population (Full text)
Pesticides and the Gut Microbiome (Full text)
PrePrints
Genomic Insights into Knobloch Syndrome: A Meta-Analytical Perspective’’ (Full text)
Poster Presentation
Chronic Stress as a risk factor for poor prognosis via dysregulation of HIF-1α in hepatocellular carcinoma patients (View poster)
The results concluded that cancer patients experience chronic stress which might play a crucial role in cancer progression and tumorigenesis through dysregulation of AVPR1 and HIF-1.
The study suggests that stress associated hypoxic dysregulation affecting angiogenesis can be a molecular basis for the association of emotional stress with increased oncogenesis.
Science outreach
Orated a workshop titled " Online BioRender workshop, Fundamentals of Scientific Illustration Designing" organized by Hybrid Medics.
Microscopy show demonstrator at Lahore Science Mela 2023
Volunteer and science communicator at Khwarizmi Science Society
Published science articles in public science platforms, The Viral Frontier. (Full text) and Technology times (Full text)
Scientific communicator at Khwarizmi Science Society
Webinars and Training Workshops
Harnessing DNA Methylation in Population Biobanks to inform the Biology of Common Disease States (Organized by GenomeWeb)
Molecular Kinetics of Gene Regulation during Embryonic Development (Organized by COMSTECH)
Awareness of Genetic Diseases by Genomic Corporation (Organized by CENTOGENE)
Volunteer ships and Certifications
Science Demonstrator at Lahore Science Mela (2023)
Volunteer (Khwarizmi Science Society)
Certified Advocate of Gender Equality (T.I.E diversity leadership retreat organized by UGRAD Pakistan)
Certificate of participation : Earth observation in environmental monitoring
Deputy Coordinator (Crime Victim Services Pakistan)
Research interests
Cancer Immunotherapy
Epigenetics
Molecular Pathology
Oncology
Neurobiology
Research Skills
DNA/RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, Primer designing and optimization, Gel electrophoresis, PCR, High Partition Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Competent Cell formation
Bioinformatic tools and Softwares
NCBI, UCSC Genome Browser, Blast, Serial Cloner, Primer3, ClustalW, MEGA 11, SPSS, Endnote, Adobe Photoshop
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