Institut Perubatan & Pergigian Termaju - Tesis

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Validity And Reliability Of Questionnaire Regarding Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice On Thalassaemia Among Caregivers Of Transfusion Dependent Thalassaemia Children
(2023-05)
Mohd Shukuri, Nur Athirah
Introduction: Thalassaemia is a chronic disease that starts in early childhood and exerts significant pressure on the patient, their caregivers, and a country’s public health service. However, knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) studies performed specifically among parents or caregivers of thalassaemia are lacking proper validity and reliability testing. Objective: To develop a valid and reliable tool to assess KAP among caregivers of TDT children. This study also evaluated the validity and reliability of the aforementioned tool. Methods: A cross-sectional design among caregivers or parents of TDT thalassaemia children in four hospitals in the state of Kelantan. This study consisted of Phase I for the development of a new questionnaire and Phase II involving the distribution of research tool to assess validity and reliability. Evaluation included content and face validation, Item Response Theory (IRT) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for construct validation, as well as internal consistency. Respondents were requested to answer a self administered questionnaire which took about 30 minutes to complete. Results: In Phase I, items were explored through an extensive review of literature and translated into Bahasa Malaysia. Content Validity was found to be satisfactory and 48 items were chosen. Face Validity was performed on 10 participants. For Phase II, a total of 107 caregivers were recruited. All 27 knowledge items were retained and Cronbach’s alpha was 0.82. Eleven out of the initial 14 attitude items were retained and internal consistency was 0.79. Cronbach’s alpha value was unacceptable for practice items despite removing questions with both low factor loading and low commonalities. Conclusion: The questionnaire regarding KAP among caregivers of TDT children generally has good validity and reliability. However, the practice domain requires revision in the future.
Effects Of Cooking Methods In Reducing Risk To Essential And Toxic Metals Exposure In Rice (Oryza Sativa) – Health Risk Assessment In Malaysia
(2023-07)
Goh, Ngee Chuang
The ubiquity of metal contamination in rice grains has been well documented worldwide. Malaysia is no exception, as reports of metal contamination in rice grains collected from various states have surfaced recently. Many studies have investigated cooking treatments to reduce the metal contamination in rice which efficacy were still unexplored on Malaysian sourced rice. The aim of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of cooking treatments, absorption cooking and parboiling before absorption cooking (PBA) on rice samples bought from Malaysian supermarkets. Metal quantification was conducted via tandem inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS) and further health risk assessment (HRA) was conducted according to the USEPA framework for metal risk assessment. The findings indicated that PBA successfully eliminated 77.9% of toxic metals (Al, As, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Pb), while removing 68.4% of essential metals (Co, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Zn). Importantly, this method ensured that concentrations of As, Cd, and Pb in all samples remained below the permissible limits according to the Malaysian Food Regulations 1985. The effectiveness of PBA can be attributed to the disposal of boiled excess water which contained dissolved metals from the rice before the rice was fully cooked. Deterministic health risk assessment (HRA) revealed that PBA significantly reduced the Hazard Index (HI) by 84.5% and Lifetime Carcinogenic Risk (LCR) associated with As exposure by 88.9% compared to controls. PBA effectively reduced the non-carcinogenic health risks posed by Cd, Mn, Ni, and Zn below the acceptable limit (Hazard Quotient (HQ) = 1) for all age groups, except As in children. However, LCR remained above the upper permissible limit (1 x 10-4) for all age groups. Probability-based HRA using Monte Carlo simulations indicated that the majority (>95%) of children, adolescents and adults would experience unacceptable total non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks from As exposure, regardless of the cooking method employed. These results indicate that the PBA method was effective in reducing both concentration of metal as well as health risk posed by toxic metals in rice.
Elucidation Of Pre-Microrna Profiles Of Breast Cancers For Pathogenesis And Prognostic Significance
(2025-09)
Wu, Sen
Breast cancer is classified into hormone receptor-positive luminal breast cancer (lbc), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer (tnbc). Precursor micrornas (pre-micrornas), typically form hairpin structures with a length from 65 to 80 bases, are shown to play crucial roles in breast cancer carcinogenesis. It can be hypothesized that pre-micrornas could be identified through total rna sequencing (rna-seq). To test this hypothesis, a novel algorithm named b-mer was designed and validated using the dataset prjna749047. The results demonstrated that b-mer runs efficiently but also provides superior annotation of pre-micrornas compared to the traditional "mapping-to-reference-genome" method. 907 breast cancer samples from mybrca dataset were profiled using b-mer and comparisons were made between pre-micrornas profiles and mature microrna profiles obtained from the cancer genome atlas (tcga) dataset. Ten differentially expressed pre-micrornas were identified commonly in both mybrca and tcga. A four pre-micrornas signature was constructed and three target genes (mybl2, fam3d, b3gnt5) were validated as causally related to breast cancer in both japanese and european groups. In conclusion, b-mer facilitates the profiling of pre-micrornas directly from raw total rna-seq data of breast cancer, and identifies a list of genes and pre-micrornas that are pivotal for the development and prognosis of the disease
Investigating The Mechanism Of Interaction Between Graphene Oxide And Reduced Graphene Oxide With Macrophage-Derived Foam Cells
(2025-10)
Lat, Farizah Hanim
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by lipid accumulation and macrophage-derived foam cell formation. Graphene-based nanomaterials, including graphene oxide (go) and reduced graphene oxide (rgo), have shown potential in modulating lipid metabolism and inflammation. This study examined the effects of go and rgo on atherosclerosis-related proteins (cd36, lox1, sra1, tlr4, apob, ldlr) using computational and experimental approaches. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations revealed that rgo displayed higher binding affinity for lipid-associated proteins via hydrophobic interactions, while go formed more stable complexes through hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. Go and rgo were synthesised from oil palm trunk (opt) and surface functionalisation was characterised by raman spectroscopy, ftir, xrd, and afm. Go exhibited higher oxygen functionalisation and hydrophilicity, whereas rgo retained partial hydrophobicity. In vitro assays showed that go was more cytotoxic to macrophages than rgo, inducing oxidative stress in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Both inhibited oxldl-induced lipid accumulation, with go demonstrating a stronger effect. Elisa confirmed no induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Gene expression analysis indicated that go upregulated abca1 and downregulated multiple scavenger receptors and inflammatory genes, promoting cholesterol efflux, while rgo showed a distinct expression pattern with sra1 and il-1β upregulation.
Roles Of Lipids And Lipoprotein Metabolism In The Mechanism Of Drug-Resistant In Different Subtypes Of Breast Cancer
(2025-10)
Hamid, Auni Fatin Abdul
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women. Obesity, often accompanied by elevated circulating lipids and lipoproteins, is increasingly recognised as a factor that worsens disease progression and therapy response. In this lipid-rich environment, cancer cells gain access to abundant substrates that can be exploited to support growth, survival and adaptation under therapeutic stress. However, the mechanisms by which obesity-associated metabolic dysregulation promotes lipoprotein utilisation and contributes to therapy resistance remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the roles of oxidised low-density lipoprotein (oxldl) and very low-density lipoprotein (vldl) in drug resistance and lipid metabolic reprogramming across different breast cancer subtypes, by characterising resistant cell models and examining their effects on cell viability, gene expression regulation, metastatic behaviour and targeted gene knockdown. Drug-resistant models were established by developing tamoxifen-resistant mcf-7 (mcf-7-tamr) and paclitaxel-resistant mda-mb-231 (mda-mb-231-pacr) cells through stepwise drug exposure and pulsed treatment, respectively.

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