Mustafa Ghanim

An-Najah National University · Department of Bio-Medical Sciences

Objectives Evaluating the knowledge in pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the first step toward the implementation of PGx testing in clinical practice. This survey aimed to evaluate the knowledge of PGx testing among healthcare providing students at the top-ranked university in the West Bank of Palestine. Methods First an online questionnaire consisting of...

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prevalent multifactorial neurological condition caused by hereditary and environmental factors. No research in Palestine has focused on family instances and the likely influence of paternal consanguinity (PC). In this study, researchers evaluated numerous risk variables, clinical course, early symptoms, and...

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a positive singlestranded ribonucleic acid (ssRNA) virus in the Coronavridae family that was first identified in December 2019. The virus causes a disease named COVID-19, which is associated with various respiratory symptoms ranging from mild to life-threatening complications. The...

Tinnitus is a common complaint with potentially negative impact on quality of life. Prevalence of tinnitus ranges from 5 to 43% worldwide. This variation could be due to the heterogeneity of tinnitus assessment. This has limited the progress in understanding tinnitus. Therefore, we employed a standardized and a validated assessment method to determ...

Gundelia (G.) tournefortii has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and hypolipemic effects. We evaluated the anticancer effect of G. tournefortii in an hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mouse model of an HCC cell line (Hep3B) injected into NOD.CB17-Prkdc-SCID/NCrHsD male mice. Tumorigenicity was assessed by tumor size, histology, serum α-fetoprotein (αF...

Background Anxiety and depression are more common among university students than in the general population. It is reported internationally that the COVID-19 pandemic increased the prevalence of anxiety and depression among students. This study aimed to measure the prevalence of anxiety and depression among university students in Palestine and to ex...

Ecballium elaterium (EE), widely used plant in Mediterranean medicine, showed anticancer activity. This study aimed to investigate EE effects on liver fibrosis in an animal model of thioacetamide (TAA). Intraperitoneal administration of TAA was performed twice weekly for four weeks in C57BL6J mice. Livers were extracted and serum were evaluated for...

Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is considered the fourth leading cause of death in Palestine, with a prevalence of 9.1% in patients aged 20-79 years, and is predicted to increase to 20.6% by 2020. Aims: This study aims to estimate DM costs, compare DM total health care cost among patient characteristics and DM management (e.g. Anti-diabetic med...

Background: COVID-19 is a new pandemic and the best protection against this infection is by vaccination. Aims: To assess the commitment to COVID-19 health precautions and vaccination willingness among the Palestinian population. Methods: An online-based survey was developed in an observational cross-sectional study. A total of 1367 participant...

Background: Medical school is considered a critical developmental stage for students. They face many challenges and rapid changes. Unfortunately, they adopt unhealthy behaviors that can negatively affect their future health and role as healthcare providers in some cases. Objective: This research aimed to compare gender disparities in health-promoti...

Objectives Pharmacogenomics (PGx) testing optimizes pharmacotherapy and reduces interindividual variation in drug responses. However, it is still not implemented in clinical practice in the West Bank of Palestine (WBP). The aim of this study was to determine the need for PGx education and testing among physicians from different specialties in WBP....

Introduction Obesity is associated with chronic activation of low-grade inflammation produced mainly from adipose tissue, which is implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases. Consequently, there is a need to screen for new anti-obesity medicines. Clinical evidence regarding the anti-obesity properties of Curcuma longa L. (C. longa) is incon...

Objectives Plants were used as medicines thousands of years ago. Conventional medicine use is increasing and many of the currently used drugs are extracted from herbal sources. In Palestinian traditional medicine, the Alhagi mannifera plant is used for the treatment of cancer. Our study aimed to extract this plant using five solvent fractions, iden...

Purpose: This study aims to assess the effect of the COVID-19 confinement on the population wellbeing using the EQ-5D questionnaire. Methods: After receiving the written permission from the EuroQol Research Foundation, an online-based survey was prepared and a total of 1380 participants were recruited via social media. The relationships of all the...

This paper described the experience of developing a MOOC at An Najah National University and how it was transferred into a SPOC from the perspective of its team developers. Learners' responses and participation had been analyzed in order to understand its content. The data collected described the motivation for developing the MOOC and then using it...

Background: Pharmacogenomics testing aims to optimise therapy and reduce the inter-individual variation in drug response. One of the major barriers against the implementation of pharmacogenomics testing is the low level of knowledge on the topic. Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the need for pharmacogenomics education among pharmacists in the...

Objectives Pharmacogenomics (PGx) testing optimizes pharmacotherapy and reduces interindividual variation in drug responses. However, it is still not implemented in clinical practice in the West Bank of Palestine (WBP). The aim of this study was to determine the need for PGx education and testing among physicians from different specialties in WBP....

Background Aloysia citriodora Palau (AC) is commonly known as Lemon Verbena and has been utilized as a medicinal tea in folkloric medicine for the treatment of abdominal spasm, anxiety, and fever. The present investigation aimed to identify the chemical ingredients of AC essential oil (EO) collected from two different locations in Palestine and to...

Objectives: This study was aimed at comparing the predictors of health-promoting lifestyle behaviors between smoking and nonsmoking medical students at An-Najah National University located in Palestine. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed during the academic year 2017/2018. Medical students were asked to complete a self-re...

Background To meet the future challenges of infectious diseases and limit the spread of multidrug resistant microorganisms, a better understanding of published studies in the field of infectious diseases is needed. The objective of this study was to analyze the quantity and quality of research activity in the field of infectious diseases in Arab co...

BACKGROUND:To meet the future challenges of infectious diseases and limit the spread of multidrug resistant microorganisms, a better understanding of published studies in the field of infectious diseases is needed. The objective of this study was to analyze the quantity and quality of research activity in the field of infectious diseases in Arab co...

steoporosis is an important health problem with serious consequences. Evaluation of osteoporosis scientific output from Arab countries has not been explored and there are few internationally published reports on research activity about osteoporosis. The main objectives of this study were to analyze the research output originating from Arab countrie...

Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is characterized by pre- and post-natal growth restriction that spares head growth, feeding difficulties, and variable dysmorphic facial features without major malformations. Hypomethylation of the paternal 11p15 imprinting control region 1 (ICR1) and maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 7 are found in 50-60% and...

Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is characterized by intrauterine (IUGR), postnatal growth restriction, relative macrocephaly and typical dysmorphic features. Two mechanisms account for 70% of SRS cases: hypomethylation of 11p15.5 imprinting center region 1 (ICR1) and maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 7 (matUPD7). Prenatal diagnosis is possib...

Two C-truncating CHMP2B (chromatin modifying protein 2B) mutations were recently found in Danish and Belgian families with autosomal dominant forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). In addition, few CHMP2B missense mutations of uncertain pathogenic role were reported in several families with FTLD or FTLD associated with motoneuron diseas...

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), characterized by behavioural and language disorders, is a clinically, genetically and pathologically heterogeneous group of diseases. The most recently identified of the four known genes is GRN, associated with 17q-linked FTD with ubiquitin-immunoreactive inclusions. GRN was analysed in 502 probands with frontal varia...