TY - JOUR A1 - Munir, R. A1 - Noureen, N. A1 - Bashir, M. A1 - Shoaib, N. A1 - Ashraf, A. A1 - Lisec, Jan A1 - Zaidi, N. T1 - Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) and Cancer Awareness Measure MYthical Causes Scale (CAM‑MY) scores in Pakistani population N2 - Lifestyle modifications could prevent almost one‑third to one‑half of all cancer cases. The awareness of cancer risk factors could motivate people to make such changes in their behaviors and lifestyles. This work aims to investigate the cancer awareness level in the Pakistani population. Telephone interviews of 657 individuals in Pakistan were carried out using the Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) and Cancer Awareness Measure–MYthical Causes Scale (CAM‑MY). We observed that participants scored significantly better on the CAM scale than the CAM‑MY scale, and CAM scores were negatively associated with CAM‑MY scores. Years of formal education or a biology major at undergraduate or graduate level did not affect our population’s cancer awareness levels. Age displayed a weak but statistically significant negative association with CAM scores. Most participants failed to identify modifiable cancer risk factors, e.g., low physical activity. Efforts should be made to improve awareness of modifiable risk factors. We observed that brief training sessions could markedly improve people’s understanding of cancer risk factors and myths. KW - Cancer KW - Cancer awareness measure KW - Cancer risk PY - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-548960 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 12 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London AN - OPUS4-54896 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Noureen, N. A1 - Shah, F. A. A1 - Lisec, Jan A1 - Usman, H. A1 - Khalid, M. A1 - Munir, R. A1 - Zaidi, N. T1 - Revisiting the association between human leukocyte antigen and end-stage renal disease N2 - Multiple works have studied possible associations between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and end stage renal disease (ESRD) showing, however, contradictory and inconsistent results. Here, we revisit the association between ESRD and HLA antigens, comparing HLA polymorphism (at HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1 and DQA1 loci) in ESRD patients (n = 497) and controls (n = 672). Our data identified several HLA alleles that displayed a significant positive or negative association with ESRD. We also determined whether heterozygosity or homozygosity of the ESRD-associated HLA alleles at different loci could modify the prevalence of the disease. Few HLA allele combinations displayed significant associations with ESRD, among which A*3_26 combination showed the highest strength of association (OR = 4.488, P≤ 0.05) with ESRD. Interestingly, the age of ESRD onset was not affected by HLA allele combinations at different loci. We also performed an extensive literature analysis to determine whether the association of HLA to ESRD can be similar across different ethnic groups. Our analysis showed that at least certain HLA alleles, HLA-A*11, HLA-DRB1*11, and HLA-DRB1*4, display a significant association with ESRD in different ethnic groups. The findings of our study will help in determining possible protective or susceptible roles of various HLA alleles in ESRD. KW - Cancer KW - Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) KW - Renal disease PY - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-512651 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 15 IS - 9 SP - e0238878 AN - OPUS4-51265 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Noureen, N. A1 - Shah, F. A. A1 - Lisec, Jan A1 - Usman, H. A1 - Khalid, M. A1 - Munir, R. A1 - Zaidi, N. T1 - Revisiting the Association between Human Leukocyte Antigen and End-Stage Renal Disease N2 - Multiple works have studied possible associations between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and end stage renal disease (ESRD). However, there are several contradictions in these previous works and no consistent HLA associations with ESRD itself have been identified. Most of these works have several limitations, for instance, the population size was too small, or only limited HLA loci were studied. The presented work aims to revisit the association between ESRD and HLA antigens while taking in to account the previously overlooked limitations. Here, we compared the HLA polymorphism (at HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1 and DQA1 loci) in ESRD patients (n=497) and controls (n=672). Our data identified several HLA alleles that displayed a significant positive or negative association with ESRD. We also determined whether heterozygosity or homozygosity of the ESRD-associated HLA alleles at different loci could modify the prevalence of the disease. Few HLA allele combinations displayed significant associations with ESRD among which HLA-A*3 –HLA-A*26 combination showed the highest strength of association (OR= 4.488, P≤ 0.05) with ESRD. However, the age of ESRD onset was not affected by HLA allele combinations at different loci. Most of the previous works have studied the association of HLA with ESRD in homogeneous ethnic groups and have interpreted their data accordingly. Here, we also performed an extensive literature analysis to determine whether the association of HLA to ESRD can be similar across different ethnic groups. This analysis showed that at least for certain alleles, the association of HLA to ESRD can be similar in different ethnic groups. For instance, HLA-A*11, HLA-DRB1*11, and HLA-DRB1*4 all showed significant positive associations with ESRD in different ethnic groups. The findings of our study will help in determining possible protective or susceptible roles of various HLA alleles in ESRD. KW - Mass-Spectrometry KW - HLA KW - Renal disease PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.18.996330 SP - 1 EP - 23 AN - OPUS4-50720 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -