Dr. Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Co-authors

Following

Followers

Research Focus & Metrics

Explore full metrics on Scilit

Academic Career Length

19Years (2008-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications

6 March 2015 in International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Journal Article

Spectrofluorometric and Molecular Docking Studies on the Binding of Curcumenol and Curcumenone to Human Serum Albumin

Curcumenol and curcumenone are two major constituents of the plants of medicinally important genus of Curcuma, and often govern the pharmacological effect of these plant extracts. These two compounds, isolated from C. zedoaria rhizomes were studied for their binding to human serum albumin (HSA) using the fluorescence quench titration method. Molecular docking was also performed to get a more detailed insight into their interaction with HSA at the binding site. Additions of these sesquiterpenes to HSA produced significant fluorescence quenching and blue shifts in the emission spectra of HSA. Analysis of the fluorescence data pointed toward moderate binding affinity between the ligands and HSA, with curcumenone showing a relatively higher binding constant (2.46 × 10⁵ M⁻¹) in comparison to curcumenol (1.97 × 10⁴ M⁻¹). Cluster analyses revealed that site I is the preferred binding site for both molecules with a minimum binding energy of −6.77 kcal·mol⁻¹. However, binding of these two molecules to site II cannot be ruled out as the binding energies were found to be −5.72 and −5.74 kcal·mol⁻¹ for curcumenol and curcumenone, respectively. The interactions of both ligands with HSA involved hydrophobic interactions as well as hydrogen bonding.

1 January 2014 in The Scientific World Journal

Journal Article

A Comparative Analysis of Synonymous Codon Usage Bias Pattern in Human Albumin Superfamily

Hoda Mirsafian

Adiratna Binti Mat Ripen

Aarti Singh

Phaik Hwan Teo

Amir Feisal Merican

Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Synonymous codon usage bias is an inevitable phenomenon in organismic taxa across the three domains of life. Though the frequency of codon usage is not equal across species and within genome in the same species, the phenomenon is non random and is tissue-specific. Several factors such as GC content, nucleotide distribution, protein hydropathy, protein secondary structure, and translational selection are reported to contribute to codon usage preference. The synonymous codon usage patterns can be helpful in revealing the expression pattern of genes as well as the evolutionary relationship between the sequences. In this study, synonymous codon usage bias patterns were determined for the evolutionarily close proteins of albumin superfamily, namely, albumin,

α

-fetoprotein, afamin, and vitamin D-binding protein. Our study demonstrated that the genes of the four albumin superfamily members have low GC content and high values of effective number of codons (ENC) suggesting high expressivity of these genes and less bias in codon usage preferences. This study also provided evidence that the albumin superfamily members are not subjected to mutational selection pressure.

1 February 2020 in Clinical Immunology

Journal Article

A novel de novo NLRC4 mutation reinforces the likely pathogenicity of specific LRR domain mutation

Revathy Nallusamy

Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Autoinflammatory disorders are characterized by dysregulated innate immune response, resulting in recurrent uncontrolled systemic inflammation and fever. Gain-of-function mutations in NLRC4 have been described to cause a range of autoinflammatory disorders. We report a twelve-year-old Malay girl with recurrent fever, skin erythema, and inflammatory arthritis. Whole exome sequencing and subsequent bidirectional Sanger sequencing identified a heterozygous missense mutation in NLRC4 (NM_001199138: c.1970A > T). This variant was predicted to be damaging in silico, was absent in public and local databases and occurred in a highly conserved residue in the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain. Cytokine analysis showed extremely high serum IL-18 and IL-18/CXCL9 ratio, consistent with other NLRC4-MAS patients. In summary, we identified the first patient with a novel de novo heterozygous NLRC4 gene mutation contributing to autoinflammatory disease in Malaysia. Our findings reinforce the likely pathogenicity of specific LRR domain mutations in NLRC4 and expand the clinical spectrum of NLRC4 mutations.

10 April 2017 in Natural Product Research

Journal Article

Experimental and computational approaches to reveal the potential of Ficus deltoidea leaves extract as α-amylase inhibitor

Amirul Ridzuan Abu Bakar

Thamilvaani Manaharan

Amir Feisal Merican

Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Ficus deltoidea leaves extract are known to have good therapeutic properties such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic. We showed that 50% ethanol-water extract of F. deltoidea leaves and its pungent compounds vitexin and isovitexin exhibited significant (p < 0.05) α-amylase inhibition with IC₅₀ (vitexin: 4.6 μM [0.02 μg/mL]; isovitexin: 0.06 μg/mL [13.8 μM] and DPPH scavenging with IC₅₀ (vitexin: 92.5 μM [0.4 μg/mL]; isovitexin: 0.5 μg/mL [115.4 μM]). Additionally, molecular docking analysis confirmed that vitexin has a higher binding affinity (-7.54 kcal/mol) towards α-amylase compared to isovitexin (−5.61 kcal/mol). On the other hand, the molecular dynamics findings showed that vitexin-α-amylase complex is more stable during the simulation of 20 ns when compared to the isovitexin-α-amylase complex. Our results suggest that vitexin is more potent and stable against α-amylase enzyme, thus it could develop as a therapeutic drug for the treatment of diabetes.

11 April 2022 in Nutrients

Journal Article

Carica papaya Leaf Juice for Dengue: A Scoping Review

BP Teh

Norzahirah Ahmad

Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Terence Yew Chin Tan

Mohd Ridzuan Mohd Abd Razak

Ami Fazlin FAZLIN BT. SYED Syed Mohamed

The potential therapeutic effect of Carica papaya leaf juice has attracted wide interest from the public and scientists in relieving dengue related manifestations. Currently, there is a lack of evaluated evidence on its juice form. Therefore, this scoping review aims to critically appraise the available scientific evidence related to the efficacy of C. papaya leaf juice in dengue. A systematic search was performed using predetermined keywords on two electronic databases (PubMed and Google Scholar). Searched results were identified, screened and appraised to establish the association between C. papaya and alleviating dengue associated conditions. A total of 28 articles (ethnobotanical information: three, in vitro studies: three, ex vivo studies: one, in vivo study: 13, clinical studies: 10) were included for descriptive analysis, which covered study characteristics, juice preparation/formulations, study outcomes, and toxicity findings. Other than larvicidal activity, this review also reveals two medicinal potentials of C. papaya leaf juice on dengue infection, namely anti-thrombocytopenic and immunomodulatory effects. C. papaya leaf juice has the potential to be a new drug candidate against dengue disease safely and effectively.

1 January 2014 in The Scientific World Journal

Journal Article

Amino Acid Sequence and Structural Comparison of BACE1 and BACE2 Using Evolutionary Trace Method

Hoda Mirsafian

Adiratna Binti Mat Ripen

Amir Feisal Merican

Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Beta-amyloid precursor protein cleavage enzyme 1 (BACE1) and beta-amyloid precursor protein cleavage enzyme 2 (BACE2), members of aspartyl protease family, are close homologues and have high similarity in their protein crystal structures. However, their enzymatic properties differ leading to disparate clinical consequences. In order to identify the residues that are responsible for such differences, we used evolutionary trace (ET) method to compare the amino acid conservation patterns of BACE1 and BACE2 in several mammalian species. We found that, in BACE1 and BACE2 structures, most of the ligand binding sites are conserved which indicate their enzymatic property of aspartyl protease family members. The other conserved residues are more or less randomly localized in other parts of the structures. Four group-specific residues were identified at the ligand binding site of BACE1 and BACE2. We postulated that these residues would be essential for selectivity of BACE1 and BACE2 biological functions and could be sites of interest for the design of selective inhibitors targeting either BACE1 or BACE2.

About Me

Dr. Saharuddin Bin Mohamad received his Doctor of Engineering degree from Tokushima University, Japan, in 2003. His research focuses on structural bioinformatics, with a particular interest in computer-aided drug design and protein engineering. He served as the Vice President of the Malaysian Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (MaSBiC) for the 2018–2020 and 2020–2022 sessions. Currently, he serves as the Head of the Centre of Research in Systems Biology, Structural Bioinformatics, and Human Digital Imaging (CRYSTAL), Universiti Malaya, a position he has held since 2017. Dr. Mahdi Roozbeh has been an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science department since 2018 at Semnan University. He is the winner of the ISI (International Statistical Institute) Jan Tinbergen Award in 2011 (which is held every 2 years in the world) for the best paper award during the World Statistical Congress in Dublin; the awards for Research Excellence at Semnan University in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2023; the Prof. Behboodian Award; and was selected as the second young Iranian researcher in statistics by the Iranian researcher in statistics by the Iranian Statistical Institute (2018). He was elected for the World Bank Trust Fund in the 62nd ISI WSC in Kuala Lumpur, 2019. His research focuses on high-dimensional deep learning, robust estimation, and semiparametric regression modeling, and he is an expert in machine learning.

Dr. Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Dr. Saharuddin Bin Mohamad

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

Publication Type Breakdown

Representative Publications

About Me