Zainuddin Zafarina

Universiti Sains Malaysia | USM · Analytical Biochemistry Research Center

The main aim of current study is to explore the potential of deep eutectic solvent (DES) as plasticizer. The influence of different choline chloride–citric acid monohydrate (ChCl–CAM) molar ratios was investigated based on the properties of the selected biopolymer film (BF). It should be highlighted that using DES as a plasticizer had improved the...

Next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technology advancements provide new insight into the level of variation in killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes. High resolution allele genotyping of seven KIR genes was conducted among 94 unrelated Malay and Orang Asli (OA) individuals of Peninsular Malaysia. A manual bioinformatics analysis is perfo...

Short tandem repeats (STRs) data for the Orang Asli population in Peninsular Malaysia is still scanty, especially for specific Orang Asli subgroups. The Orang Asli is believed as the earliest population arrived in Peninsular Malaysia about 50,000 years ago and currently makes up only 0.6% of the total population of Malaysia. This study reports the...

The establishment of a viable program for new born screening in the Asian region has suffered unimaginable set-back partly due to several factors such as economic, cultural, and geographical differences. This has mostly become exacerbated partly in developing and developed economies due to lack of proper awareness. In many parts of the world, the s...

Objectives Killer cell immunoglobulin‐like receptor (KIR) genes with high polymorphism at genotypic levels are important in providing immune defense and have been expanded towards human population genetics. The aim of this study is to provide supporting information from this new biomarker to strengthen the comprehension of genetic history of the co...

Background: Brown adipocytes are known to promote energy expenditure and limit weight gain to combat obesity. Averrhoa bilimbi, locally called belimbing buluh (DBB), is mainly used as an ethnomedicine in the treatment of metabolic disorders including diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity. The present study aims to investigate the browning ac...

Consumption of curry containing poppy seeds has raised an issue concerning the opiate content in the urine that might exceed the cut-off value (300ng/mL). The main objective of this study was to examine the morphine and codeine contents in the urine of the consumers after partaking poppy seed-enriched curry in. The volunteers were asked to partake:...

In our previous study, two known piperidine alkaloids (+)-spectaline (1) and iso-6-spectaline (2) were isolated from the leaves of Senna spectabilis and showed no toxic effect on L6 cells. In view of the potential use of piperidine alkaloids in S. spectabilis for the treatment of sleeping sickness, further investigation on the cell death actions of...

“Bumiputra” or “son of the soil” is a term used to represent the Malays and other indigenous populations of Malaysia. The Malays are Austronesian speaking population and originated from different parts of the Indo-Malay Archipelago. The migration of Malay population from different parts of Indo-Malay Archipelago were mainly due to trading purposes...

Peninsular Malaysia is populated by the Malays, Chinese, Indians, and Orang Asli. We have analyzed 17 Y-STRs loci for 243 randomly unrelated individuals, which include 153 Malays (7 Acheh, 13 Champa, 11 Rawa, 9 Kedah, 23 Minang, 15 Bugis, 43 Kelantan, 14 Jawa, and 18 Bugis) and 90 Orang Asli [54 Semang (16 Kensiu, 13 Lanoh, 25 Bateq); 30 Senoi (21...

The original version of this article contains an error. The Author Abd Rashid Nur Haslindawaty has been added as to the above author group as third author. The original article was corrected.

In our ongoing work searching for new trypanocidal lead compounds from Malaysian plants, two known piperidine alkaloids (+)-spectaline (1) and iso-6-spectaline (2) were isolated from the leaves of Senna spectabilis (sin. Cassia spectabilis). Analysis of the 1H and 13C NMR spectra showed that 1 and 2 presented analytical and spectroscopic data in fu...

Background and Objective: Amplification of target sequences has become a necessary technique in molecular research and has been used for various applications such as forensic investigation, genetic tracking, disease diagnosis and much more. The objective of this study was to develop an internal PCR control (IPC) for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) typing...

Human platelet antigens (HPAs) are polymorphic and immunogenic glycoproteins encoded by biallelic genes on human chromosome 17 (HPA-1 to -4 and HPA-6 to -11), chromosome 5 (HPA-5), and chromosome 6 (HPA-15) and expressed on the surface of platelets. In the present study, we typed seven HPA loci (HPA-1 to -6 and HPA-15) by polymerase chain reaction...

A disparity population data set in the current literature with limited reports among Asian samples and the inconsistent findings among different ethnic groups warrant further investigation on the association between alpha-actinin-3 (ACTN3) R/X gene polymorphism and human physical performance in Asian population. This study was designed to examine t...

A disparity population data set in the current literature with limited reports among Asian samples and the inconsistent findings among different ethnic groups warrant further investigation on the association between alpha-actinin-3 (ACTN3) R/X gene polymorphism and human physical performance in Asian population. This study was designed to examine t...

The traditional morphological method gives almost no clue about the genetic and evolutionary information of an organism. A molecular based method, especially involving mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genes as the genetic marker has provided the ideal platform for species identification, species delineation and evolutionary study. In this study, a partial...

The earliest settlers in Peninsular Malaysia are the Orang Asli population, namely Semang, Senoi and Proto Malays. In the present study, we typed the HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 loci of the Kensiu and Semai Orang Asli sub-groups. Sequence-based HLA typing was performed on 59 individuals from two Orang Asli sub-groups. A total of 11, 18 and 14 HLA-A, -B and...

In the original article, one of the co-author’s (Ken Khong Eng) given name has been published incorrectly. The correct given name should be Ken Khong. The original article has been corrected.

There has been a long-standing debate concerning the extent to which the spread of Neolithic ceramics and Malay-Polynesian languages in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) were coupled to an agriculturally-driven demic dispersal out of Taiwan 4000 years ago (4 ka). We previously addressed this question by using founder analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA...

To accelerate the discovery of novel leads for the treatment of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), it is necessary to have a simple, robust and cost-effective assay to identify positive hits by high throughput whole cell screening. Most of the fluorescence assay was made in black plate however in this study the HTS assay developed in 384-well for...

Objective: To determine the presence of deletion in exon 6 of the GJB6 gene in Malays with non-syndromic hearing loss. Materials and Methods: Ninety one (91) Malay patients with non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL) were recruited. All the patients were confirmed to have bilateral severe to profound hearing loss based on Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) exam...

The aboriginal populations of Peninsular Malaysia, also known as Orang Asli (OA), comprise three major groups; Semang, Senoi and Proto-Malays. Here, we analyzed for the first time KIR gene polymorphisms for 167 OA individuals, including those from four smallest OA subgroups (Che Wong, Orang Kanaq, Lanoh and Kensiu) using polymerase chain reaction-s...

This study was conducted to characterize the selected marine fish species using partial sequence of mtDNA 12S and 16S rRNA gene. PCR amplification of 12S and 16S rRNA generated PCR amplicons at 350 and 440 bp lengths, respectively. Sequence analysis was performed using BioEdit software. Phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA software. Two ref...

The major aims of this study are to characterise and compile allelic data of human platelet antigen (HPA)-1 to -6 and -15 systems in five Malay sub-ethnic groups in Peninsular Malaysia. HPAs are polymorphic glycoproteins expressed on the surface of platelet membranes and are genetically differentiated across ethnogeographically unrelated population...

Objective/Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in diseases development. Therefore, human miRNAs may be able to inhibit the survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in the human host by targeting critical genes of the pathogen. Mutations within miRNAs can alter their target selection, thereby preventing them from inhibiting Mtb...

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) I/D gene polymorphism on athletic status and physical performance of well-trained Malaysian athletes. Methods 180 well-trained athletes (34 endurance, 41 strength/power, and 105 intermittent athletes) and 180 sedentary controls involved...

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) I/D gene polymorphism on athletic status and physical per- formance of well-trained Malaysian athletes. Methods 180 well-trained athletes (34 endurance, 41 strength/power, and 105 intermittent athletes) and 180 sedentary controls involv...

Human neutrophil antigens (HNA) are polymorphic and immunogenic proteins involved in the pathogenesis of neonatal alloimmune neutropenia, transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) and transfusion-related alloimmune neutropenia. The characterisation of HNA at a population level is important for predicting the risk of alloimmunisation associated...

In this survey, we have successfully genotyped 22 single nucleotide polymorphisms in the 13 cytokine genes for five Malay subethnic groups (Kelantan, Acheh, Mandailing, Minangkabau and Patani Malays) using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primer cytokine genotyping kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Most of the cytokine genes showed si...

The KIR system shows variation at both gene content and allelic level across individual genome and populations. This variation reflects its role in immunity and has become a significant tool for population comparisons. In this study, we investigate KIR gene content in 120 unrelated individuals from the four Malay subethnic groups (Kelantan, Jawa, B...

Research trend in DSS has moved from the issue of DSS development into DSS evolution. Initial works has been done in 1980's but further research has not been done continuously. The evolution issue of DSS has gained interests again; hence the focus in this research is mainly about evolution decision support systems (DSS) especially from the state-of...

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 10398 polymorphism is hypothesised to alter a mitochondrial subunit of the electron transfer chain and is associated with several neurodegenerative disorders and cancers. In this study, an mtDNA polymorphism at nucleotide position 10398 was screened in 101 Malay female patients with invasive breast cancer and 90 age-ma...

To identify the mutations in the GJB2 gene and to determine its association with non-syndromic hearing loss in Malays. A comparative cross sectional study was conducted on a group of children from the deaf schools and the normal schools. A total of 91 buccal cell samples of non-syndromic hearing loss and 91 normal hearing children were taken. Polym...

Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) is the earliest and the most prevalent necrophagous species infesting dead bodies in Malaysia and thus, may provide the best estimate of minimum postmortem interval (PMI). In Malaysia, heavy and/or incessant rain is commonplace occurrence and malathion is the most prevalent poison used for committing suicide. In th...

The use of Chrysomya megacephala larvae for detecting malathion for diagnosing the cause of death was investigated. This could prove useful when the visceral organs have become liquefied during decomposition and therefore cannot be sampled. A field experiment was conducted in which C. megacephala were allowed to colonise naturally the corpses of ra...

Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) is the earliest and the most prevalent necrophagous species infesting dead bodies in Malaysia and thus, may provide the best estimate of minimum postmortem interval (PMI). In Malaysia, heavy and/or incessant rain is commonplace occurrence and malathion is the most prevalent poison used for committing suicide. In th...

In getting software requirement and specification based on existing system, reverse engineering (RE) can be done by creating abstraction views of a system in order to help software engineer maintain and re-engineer it. Requirement engineering and specification in a development of a decision support system (DSS) presented in this paper is replaced b...

Electronic supplementary material

The uniparentally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is in the limelight for the past two decades, in studies relating to demographic history of mankind and in forensic kinship testing. In this study, human mtDNA hypervariable segments 1, 2, and 3 (HV1, HV2, and HV3) were analyzed in 248 unrelated Malay individuals in Peninsular Malaysia. Combined...

Decision support system (DSS) has been applied in a wide range of computer applications that commonly manipulate information in variety fields. This is including computer-based systems that are being used in handling data in order to achieve an optimization for decision-making in crime investigation. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profile analysis usi...

The influence of rain and malathion on the initial oviposition as well as development of blowfly species infesting rabbit carcasses decomposing in sunlit and shaded habitats were studied over a period of 1 year in Kelantan, Malaysia. Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) was the most dominant species that infested the carcasses, followed by Chrysomya r...

An unidentified animal species named the Jenglot and claimed to be a rare living animal species was recently found in the deep jungle of Irian Jaya, Indonesia; brought to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by a businessman; and exhibited in a local museum. The owner of the Jenglot carcasses had made a request to perform DNA analysis on the Jenglot to ascertain...

In this study, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II were examined through sequence-specific primer typing in 176 unrelated individuals from six Malay subethnic groups of Peninsular Malaysia: Kelantan (n = 25), Minangkabau (34), Jawa (30), Bugis (31), Banjar (33), and Rawa (23). The most common HLA alleles in all groups were A*24 (26-41%), C...

To determine the frequency and type of gap junction protein beta-2 gene mutations in Malay patients with autosomal recessive, non-syndromic hearing loss. A total of 33 Malay patients with autosomal recessive, non-syndromic hearing loss were screened for mutations in the Cx26 coding region. Deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted from buccal swab sample...

A recent dispersal of modern humans out of Africa is now widely accepted, but the routes taken across Eurasia are still disputed. We show that mitochondrial DNA variation in isolated "relict" populations in southeast Asia supports the view that there was only a single dispersal from Africa, most likely via a southern coastal route, through India an...

A study was undertaken to assess the utility of mtDNA as a forensic tool in the Malay Peninsular. Two populations, modern Malay and Orang Asli, were sampled and their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysed. Comparing the different haplogroups that were found, there are clear differences between the two populations. As a forensic tool, the use of mtDNA...

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Glasgow, 2004.