👤 Raofur Adnan

Variation in facial hair is one of the most conspicuous features of facial appearance, particularly in South Asia and Middle East countries. A genome-wide association study in Latin Americans has identified multiple genetic variants at distinct loci being associated with facial hair traits including eyebrow thickness, beard thickness, and monobrow. In this pilot study, we have evaluated 16 SNPs associated with facial hair traits in 58 male individuals from the Punjabi population of Pakistan. In our sample, rs365060 in EDAR and rs12597422 in FTO showed significant association with monobrow, rs6684877 in MACF1 showed significant association with eyebrow thickness, and two SNPs in LOC105379031 (rs9654415 and rs7702331) showed significant association with beard thickness. Our results also suggest that genetic association may vary between ethnic groups and geographic regions. Although more data are needed to validate our results, our findings are of value in forensic molecular photofitting research in Pakistan. Show less

Pollution of industry-adjacent surface water bodies become a major environmental concern in Bangladesh recently. Therefore, this study aimed to elaborate assessment of physico-chemical characteristics of the Dhaleshwari River (the adjacent river of newly shifted tannery industrial park) and also the discharged effluent from the central effluent treatment plant (CETP) considering both seasonal and spatial variations. Among the examined 30 water quality parameters (including 11 heavy metals), only TDS, Cl Show less

Sorghum bicolor (SB) is rich in protective phytoconstituents with health benefits and regarded as a promising source of natural anti-diabetic substance. However, its comprehensive bioactive compound(s) and mechanism(s) against type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have not been exposed. Hence, we implemented network pharmacology to identify its key compounds and mechanism(s) against T2DM. Compounds in SB were explored through GC-MS and screened by Lipinski's rule. Genes associated with the selected compounds or T2DM were extracted from public databases, and the overlapping genes between SB-compound related genes and T2DM target genes were identified using Venn diagram. Then, the networking between selected compounds and overlapping genes was constructed, visualized, and analyzed by RStudio. Finally, affinity between compounds and genes was evaluated via molecular docking. GC-MS analysis of SB detected a total of 20 compounds which were accepted by the Lipinski's rule. A total number of 16 compounds-related genes and T2DM-related genes (4,763) were identified, and 81 overlapping genes between them were selected. Gene set enrichment analysis exhibited that the mechanisms of SB against T2DM were associated with 12 signaling pathways, and the key mechanism might be to control blood glucose level by activating PPAR signaling pathway. Furthermore, the highest affinities were noted between four main compounds and six genes (FABP3-Propyleneglyco monoleate, FABP4-25-Oxo-27-norcholesterol, NR1H3-Campesterol, PPARA-β-sitosterol, PPARD-β-sitosterol, and PPARG-β-sitosterol). Our study overall suggests that the four key compounds detected in SB might ameliorate T2DM severity by activating the PPAR signaling pathway. Show less