Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1

Background and Objectives Impaired cholesterol and fat metabolism contributes to obesity, type 2 diabetes and atherogenic cardiovascular disease; major chronic conditions that are increasingly prevalent in Qatar. There is thus an urgent need for new treatment modalities to combat the rise in these diseases. Understanding how cholesterol/lipid homeostasis is achieved and maintained is among the very first critical steps Read More

Thymidylate kinases (TMKs) play a central role in the production of nucleotide precursors that are required for the replication of DNA. Consequently, this enzyme is a potential drug target for the discovery of anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. In addition, TMKs are also involved in the activation of prodrugs. In particular, the anti-HIV drug AZT is activated by human TMK (huTMK) and the low efficienc Read More

Identification of post-translationally modified α-Synuclein protein in biofluids of Parkinson's disease patients using a targeted and quantitative mass spectrometry approach. Céline Vocat1, Bruno Fauvet1, Michel Prudent4, Adrien W. Schmid3, Hilal A. Lashuel1&2. 1 Laboratory of Molecular and Chemical Biology of Neurodegeneration, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerl Read More

It is well established that intermittent exercises are very specific for performance in field and combat sports. However, few studies have examined the effect of sinusoidal oscillation in exercise intensity could maintain or ameliorates energetic coast. The aim of this work was to investigate if the variation of exercise allures (constant speed (CT-sp) vs. sinusoidal speed (SIN-sp) on physiological responses during submaximal exercis Read More

Background & Objective: Cerebral aneurysms are one of the prevalent and devastating cerebrovascular diseases of adult population worldwide. The resulting effect is subarachnoid hemorrhage, intra- cerebral hematoma and other complications leading to a high mortality rate. When the aneurysm is fusiform, having wide neck or is large in shape, deploying stent in the parent artery to bypass aneurysm is considered as th Read More

Background: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a chronic and serious complication associated with diabetes. The standardization of an in vitro model to best represent DN is very challenging due to the chronic nature of the condition. Therefore, two different renal tubule cell lines - Madin-Darby canine kidney cells (MDCK) and Normal rat kidney cells (NRK-52E) - were used to investigate the effects of high glucose on kidney cells. Read More

Background. Insulin resistance and the prevalence of diabetes are high in the Middle Eastern population and in people of South Asian origin. Because of epidemic proportions that diseases have reached in these populations. It is important to find early markers along with preventative interventions. Recent data indicates that the metabolic defect in the pre-diabetic condition relates more strongly to post-prandial deficie Read More

ABSTRACT Introduction Over the last 30 years the incidences of cancer and diabetes have been increasing progressively and there is both epidemiologic and experimental data linking diabetes and various cancer outcomes. Previous studies has shown that physical activity, height, and obesity; measured by weight, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index were associated with the risk of diabetes and Read More

This project focuses on developing a complete telemetry system in response to the growing demand for efficient, mobile and inexpensive system for detecting cardiovascular abnormalities. Our team has already developed two algorithms. The first algorithm detects various critical points on Electrocardiograph (ECG) waveforms such as: P-wave, QRS complex, T-wave and ST elevation. Based on these points, the second algorit Read More

Background: Breast Cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related mortality in women, both in Qatar and the world. Despite the available treatments the incidence of breast cancer is increasing. This highlights the need for new approaches for cancer. One of the fields that is gaining attention nowadays is herbal medicine. Herbs are known to have bioactive compounds that affect many diseases one of which is cancer. Read More