Noor Akmal Shareela Ismail

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia | ukm · Department of Biochemistry

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way of teaching and learning in medicine. Conventional medical education has been fully transformed to open distance learning that includes the full utilization of various digital platforms. Thus, this study explored the impact of digital learning usage on learning motivation among medical students of Universi...

Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune blood disorder that involves multiple pathways responsible for the homeostasis of the immune system. Numerous pieces of literature have proposed the potential of immune-related genes as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, which mostly implicate the role of B cells and T cells in the pathogenesis of I...

Introduction: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute idiopathic systemic vasculitis with a self- limiting course that predominantly affects children under 5 years old, particularly in the East Asian countries. Nevertheless, to date, the data on KD in Malaysia are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiology, clinical features, treatment, and...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is often associated with the older generation. However, in recent years, there is an increasing trend in the prevalence of CAD among the younger population; this is known as premature CAD. Although biomarkers for CAD have been established, there are limited studies focusing on premature CAD especially among the Malay m...

Team-based Learning (TBL) is a global educational strategy designed to inculcate self-directed and active learning. There is a new breed of students who are exposed to restricted and compromised teaching and learning methods via online platforms amidst this COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this innovation aims to explore the application of active lear...

Background and Objectives: Kawasaki Disease (KD) incidence has been on the rise globally throughout the years, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. KD can be diagnosed based on several clinical criteria. Due to its systemic inflammatory nature, multi-organ involvement has been observed, making the diagnosis of KD more challenging. Notably, seve...

Individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) frequently present with multiple feeding problems, which may require food texture modification to ensure safe feeding. This review aims to explore the challenges individuals with CP and their caregiver’s face and recommend modified food textures to ensure safety and improve the quality of life and nutritional st...

Team-based Learning (TBL) is a global education strategy designed to inculcate self-directed and active learning. The fallout is a new breed of students who are exposed to restricted and compromised teaching and learning methods via online platforms amidst this COVID -19 pandemic. Therefore, this innovation aims to explore the application of active...

Kawasaki disease (KD) has shown a marked increase in trend over the globe, especially within the last two decades. Kawasaki disease is often seen in the paediatric population below five years old, while it is rare for those who are beyond that age. Up to this date, no exact causes has been identified although KD was found more than half a century a...

Oxidative stress-related conditions associated with lung cells, specifically lung cancer, often lead to a poor prognosis. We hypothesized that platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) can play a role in reversing oxidative stress in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 epithelial lung cell lines. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was used to induce oxidative stress in cell...

Open distance learning has become a new norm in medical education since the COVID-19 pandemic. The abrupt shift from conventional medical education to fully virtual learning deserves a reflection on how it affected the learning motivation among medical students. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the effect of open distance learning on their le...

The aim of this review is to highlight the spectrum on which human behavior has been affected by blanket restriction measures and on a wider scale, the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the human behaviors that have been impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown are dietary behavior and nutrition, food options and food delivery usage, physical activity and sedent...

Conventional teaching and learning methods in Medical Biochemistry were reported to be less effective in achieving their objectives; therefore, interactive group-based learning and assessment serve as a nuanced approach to enhance achievement of student learning outcomes. In relevance to Education 4.0, students are guided to determine their self-le...

Acute infectious gastroenteritis (AGE) is among the leading causes of mortality in children less than 5 years of age worldwide. There are many causative agents that lead to this infection, with rotavirus being the commonest pathogen in the past decade. However, this trend is now being progressively replaced by another agent, which is the norovirus....

Food allergy in children has been a common issue due to the challenges of prescribing personalized nutrition with a lack of nutriepigenomics data. This has indeed further influenced clinical practice for appropriate management. While allergen avoidance is still the main principle in food allergy management, we require more information to advance th...

Background Medical education has undergone a transformation from conventional to digital learning, enabling learning without any time and place restrictions. Nevertheless, the actual trends of usage and its impact on learning motivation among medical students between developed and developing nations are yet to be investigated. Hence, this study com...

Unstructured: In this viewpoint, we share and reflect on the experiences of the final year students preparing for a high-stakes examination at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight the new challenges faced during online remote learning and major differences in the clinical learning...

UNSTRUCTURED In this viewpoint, we share and reflect on the experiences of final-year students preparing for a high-stakes examination at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight the new challenges faced during web-based remote learning and major differences in the clinical learning environm...

Background: Sufficient intake of macronutrients and micronutrients are essential for child growth. Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) however are reported to be picky eaters which may lead to malnourishment. As diet and behaviour are importantly interconnected, this study aims to determine the level of knowledge on nutrition among pa...

Previous conventional practical session was reported to be less effective in achieving its objectives. Therefore, “Speedy Biochemistry” was introduced to assist students to apply knowledge they have learnt in the classroom. This setting promotes teamwork and application of knowledge in problem solving which can be achieved through active learning....

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disability that is frequently associated with food refusal, limited food repertoire and high-frequency single food intake mainly among children with ASD. Provision of nutrition can be very challenging due to the fact of these behavioural problems, either for the parents or special educa...

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected the global healthcare and economy but threatened the world of education altogether. Malaysia is not spared from this pandemic as all universities were forced to close and initiate online learning with the implementation of Movement Control Order since mid-March 2020.The abrupt shift from conventional medi...

The epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) provides for Na+ absorption in various types of epithelia including the kidney, lung, and colon where ENaC is localized to the apical membrane to enable Na+ entry into the cell. The degree of Na+ entry via ENaC largely depends on the number of active channels localized to the cell membrane, and is tightly controlle...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) predominantly manifests in older population above the age of 60 years old. The incidence of CAD in younger individuals has been reported and is called premature CAD (pCAD). The prevalence for pCAD in individuals below 45 years old is about 3-10% worldwide. Advances in risk prediction are of great importance as absolute...

Background: There are accumulating studies reporting that vitamin E in general exhibits bone protective effects. This systematic review, however discusses the effects of a group of vitamin E isomers, tocotrienols in preventing bone loss through osteoclast differentiation and activity suppression. Objective: This review is aimed to discuss the li...

Identifying patients at risk of developing premature coronary artery disease (PCAD) which occurs at age below 45 years old and constitutes approximately 7–10% of coronary artery disease (CAD) worldwide remains a problem. Oxidative stress has been proposed as a crucial step in the early development of PCAD. This study was conducted to determine the...

This study explores the experience of both learners and a teacher during a team-based learning (TBL) session. TBL involves active learning that allows medical students to utilise their visual, auditory, writing and kinetic learning styles in order to strengthen their knowledge and retain it for longer, which is important with regard to applying bas...

Background: Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centred learning system that involves multidisciplinary fields focused on problem solving. Facilitators of PBL are not necessarily content experts but little is known on how this concept has affected the outcomes of PBL sessions in learning Medical Biochemistry. We aim to discuss the impact of h...

Imbalance oxidative status occurs when oxidative stress is higher in the body due to the production of reactive oxygen species. Thus, antioxidants are needed to counteract the production of free radicals. Reoccurrence of oxidative stress in the lung cells will eventually lead to inflammation and edema. This will result to a severe prognosis of lung...

Organizations have always placed emphasis on the public’s voices as an effort to continue enhancing their service towards society. University’s performance and its relevance in a nation is highly dependent on the marketability of its students. The ability to widely distribute their students and to heighten their mobility in society and in the work...

Neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated protein 4-2 (Nedd4-2) mediates the internalization / degradation of epithelial Na+ channel subunits (α-, β- and γ-ENaC). Serum / glucocorticoid inducible kinase 1 (SGK1) and protein kinase A (PKA) both appear to inhibit this process by phosphorylating Nedd4-2-Ser221, -Ser327 and -Thr24...

Glucocorticoids appear to control Na⁺ absorption in pulmonary epithelial cells via a mechanism dependent upon serum and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase 1 (SGK1), a kinase that allows control over the surface abundance of epithelial Na⁺ channel subunits (α-, β- and γ-ENaC). However, not all data support this model and the present study re-evaluates...