Shahzadi Arhum
Project Title: "Crosstalk between Emotional Stress and Atrial Fibrillation and how they lead towards Heart Failure"
Abstract
Emotional stress is one of the leading causes of various cardiovascular diseases around the world which not only triggers cardiovascular issues but their exacerbation. In this context, impact of chronic emotional stress on cardiac health and complications is studied using mouse model. This is a gene expression analysis study, which is assisted by various biochemical tests and histopathological analysis to illustrate and emphasize on the role played by emotional stress in triggering cardiac stress and associated complications which lead towards heart failure. The study is done to check if emotional stress causes cardiac stress and if this cardiac stress triggers various types of cardiac complications i.e., Atrial Fibrillation, Tacchycardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Dilated cardiomyopathy. Also, the study is done to check the crosslink between various cardiac complications and how the presence of AF triggers TIC, HCM and DCM and how they all eventually lead towards the heart failure. Cardiac stress has been confirmed by two biomarkers of cardiac stress i.e., the upregulation of Ankrd1 and Fhl1 indicated the presence of cardiac stress in mouse model. The observed downregulation of Ttn and Myl4 gene is known to trigger Atrial Fibrillation (AF) in the emotionally stressed heart. Higher levels of the Hcn4 indicated the likelihood of Tacchycardiomyopathy. While the onset of HCM is indicated by the Myh7 and rest of the genes but data of Myh7 generated in this study is ambiguous. While, rest of the data indicates the onset of AF, TIC, cardiomyopathy in the emotionally stressed mouse model. Also, data from histopathology and enzymatic analysis shows the deteriorating cardiac health. Overall, this study indicates the impact of prolonged emotional stress as a triggering factor of cardiac stress leading the heart towards cardiac complications like AF, TIC, HCM, DCM and eventually Heart failure.
"Forced swim test based induced depression upregulates cardiac stress-responsive genes in mouse model"
Graphical Abstract:
درد ہو دل میں تو دوا کیجے
دل ہی جب درد ہو تو کیا کیجے
Education
MPhil. Molecular Pathology and Genomics (Forman Christian College, A Chartered University, Lahore
BSc. Hons in Microbiology (Government College University, Lahore)
Volunteer Work
Science Demonstrator
Khwarizmi Science Society
Worked as Indoor Volunteer at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Care Hospital and Research Center ( with cancer patients)
Worked as Outdoor Volunteer at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Care Hospital and Research Center (Zakat Campaign)
Coordinator at Blood donor society (Government College University, Lahore)
Professional Experience
Teaching Assistantship
Forman Christian College
Science Communicator
Khwarizmi Science Society
Internships
Bacillus anthracis Lab (intern)
University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 2019-2020
Avian Influenza Virus Lab (intern)
University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore 2019-2020
Fellowships
1 year Impact partner fellowship program by "Green Box" (Youth Engagement Lab)
Awards and Achievements
Graduated with Cum Laude (Honors)
Forman Christian College (A Chartered University)
Graduated with Roll of Honor
Government College University, Lahore
8th National snow hike, Punjab level Hiker 3rd position among girls
Alpine Club of Pakistan
Publications
Forced swim test based induced depression upregulates cardiac stress-responsive genes in mouse model. (Research article manuscript submitted in Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology, Dec 30, 2022)
Depression induces atrial fibrillation, arrhythmogenic and dilated cardiomyopathies in C57 BL/6 mice, making its heart prone to failure (Research article manuscript submitted in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, Dec 30, 2022)
Dysregulation of neural structure genes in mice exhibiting depression-like behavior. (Research article manuscript submitted in Cell & Bioscience, Dec 30, 2022)
Association between COVID-19 and lung fibrosis, genetic similarities, and the role of COVID-19 vaccines in triggering acute exacerbation of pulmonary fibrosis. (Review article manuscript submitted in The American Journal of Pathology, Dec 30, 2022
The link between macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue and insulin resistance: Towards novel therapeutic targets in metabolic syndrome ( Review article manuscript in process)
Conferences & Seminars
Participated as "Speaker" at 1st National Conference on Emerging Horizons in Science & Technology (NCEHST-2022) ( Dec 26-27, 2022 at University of Central Punjab, Lahore)
Research Interests
Cardiovascular research & medicine
Molecular Biology/ Cell Biology
Microbiology
Developmental Biology
Pathology
Trainings & Workshops
Bioinformatics and Statistical Data (Participated in National Workshop on Bioinformatics and Statistical Data, Government College University, Lahore)
Biosafety Training (Participated in "Biosafety Training for Young researchers" in collaboration with Pakistan Biological Safety Association (PBSA), at Government College University, Lahore.
Certifications
Chinese Language HSK-I (Government College University, Lahore)
Research Skills
Mouse model (handling, dissection, and extraction of organs).
Chick Embryo (candling, inoculation, harvesting, and isolation of viruses).
Working experience on pathogens like Bacillus anthracis and Avian Influenza type A virus.
Isolation and screening of microorganisms.
Molecular biology techniques like DNA, RNA, and plasmid extraction from blood, tissue (heart, brain, and liver tissues) and saliva, conventional PCR, RT-PCR, gel electrophoresis, mutagenesis, molecular cloning, gene screening, karyotyping, screening of carcinogenic agents, southern blotting, electroblotting, cellular culturing, flow cytometry, and immunochromatography.
Microbiology techniques like microscopy, bacterial and viral culturing, staining (gram, spore, and acid-fast staining), replica plating, and spectrophotometry.
Immunological assays like Hemagglutination (HA), Hemagglutination inhibition (HI), and Spot HA. · Viral and bacterial serological and biochemical testing.
Antibiotic susceptibility testing.
Bioinformatics tools
Data Bases -NCBI -UCSC Genome browser -Ensembl -Swiss Port -KEGG
Sequence alignment, visualization, and analysis tools - Mega-X - Jalview - Rasmol - ClustalX -FASTA
Primer Designing -SnapGene -Serial Cloner -NCBI Primer Blast -Primer3Plus
Statistical Analysis - SPSS - GraphPad Prism 9 - Microsoft Excel
Illustrations - Biorender -Canva - imageJ
Reference Managers - Endnote - Mendeley
Extra-Curricular Activities
Senior Vice-president at Hiking and Mountaineering Club, GCU Lahore (2019-2020)
Vice-president at Hiking and Mountaineering Club, GCU Lahore (2019-2020)
Book reading
Writing and poetry