Tara Akhtarkhavari

Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad | FUM · Department of Biology

Background: Intellectual disability (ID) is a genetically heterogeneous condition, and so far, 1679 human genes have been identified for this phenotype. Countries with a high rate of parental consanguinity, such as Iran, provide an excellent opportunity to identify the remaining novel ID genes, especially those with an autosomal recessive (AR) mode...

Introduction: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common causes of female infertility. The etiology of this condition is complex. Various genetic and environmental factors have been identified in the pathogenesis of PCOS. The prevalence of this syndrome among Iranian females has been reported between 7.1% to 14.6%. Common symptoms i...

Despite tremendous achievements in the field of targeted cancer therapy, chemotherapy is still the main treatment option, which is challenged by acquired drug resistance. Various microRNAs are involved in developing drug-resistant cells. miR-21 is one of the first identified miRNAs involved in this process. Here, we conducted a literature review to...

Mutations in adaptor protein complex‐4 (AP‐4) genes have first been identified in 2009, causing a phenotype termed as AP‐4 deficiency syndrome. Since then several patients with overlapping phenotypes, comprised of intellectual disability (ID) and spastic tetraplegia have been reported. To delineate the genotype‐phenotype correlation of the AP‐4 def...

Iran, despite its size, geographic location and past cultural influence, has largely been a blind spot for human population genetic studies. With only sparse genetic information on the Iranian population available, we pursued its genome-wide and geographic characterization based on 1021 samples from eleven ethnic groups. We show that Iranians, whil...

Abstract Background: Risky sexual behaviors expose people to sexual transmitted diseases. These behaviors are usually common among homeless people, so educational programs would help them to avoid high risk behaviors. Understanding STD awareness and the common types of risky behaviors among homeless people would provide a good context for designing...

Autosomal recessive (AR) gene defects are the leading genetic cause of intellectual disability (ID) in countries with frequent parental consanguinity, which account for about 1/7th of the world population. Yet, compared to autosomal dominant de novo mutations, which are the predominant cause of ID in Western countries, the identification of AR-ID g...

In outbred Western populations, most individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are sporadic cases, dominant de novo mutations (DNM) are frequent, and autosomal recessive ID (ARID) is very rare. Because of the high rate of parental consanguinity, which raises the risk for ARID and other recessive disorders, the prevalence of ID is significantly...

Background: Countries with culturally accepted consanguinity provide a unique resource for the study of rare recessively inherited genetic diseases. Although hereditary hearing loss (HHL) is not uncommon, it is genetically heterogeneous, with over 85 genes causally implicated in non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL). This heterogeneity makes many gene...

Background: The genetic basis of longevity is an important field of study because the majority of supercentenarian cases experience healthy aging and may only show age-related diseases in their last few years of life. It is clear that genetic factors play an important role in survival beyond 90 years ofage, but the exact relationship of geneticvari...

Heredity hearing loss (HL) is the most prevalent sensory disorder and most cases are non-syndromic. Eighty percent of non-syndromic sensorineural deaf patients show an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance. To date, 47 genes and 98 loci have been reported for this mode of inheritance. Previous studies in our center showed the high prevalence o...