Deficiencies of micronutrients can affect the growth and development of children. There is increasing evidence of vitamin D deficiency world-wide resulting in nutritional rickets in children and osteoporosis in adulthood. Data on the micronutrient status of children in Malaysia is limited. The aim of this study was to determine the anthropometric and micronutrient status of primary school children in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

Histopathological assessment has a low potential to predict clinical outcome in patients with the same stage of colorectal cancer. More specific and sensitive biomarkers to determine patients’ survival are needed. We aimed to determine gene expression signatures as reliable prognostic marker that could predict survival of colorectal cancer patients with Dukes’ B and C. We examined microarray gene expression profiles of 78 archived tissues of patients with Dukes’ B and C using the Illumina DASL assay. The gene expression data were analyzed using the GeneSpring software and R programming. The outliers were detected and replaced with randomly chosen genes from the 90 % confidence interval of the robust mean for each group. We performed three statistical methods (SAM, LIMMA and t-test) to identify significant genes. There were 19 significant common genes identified from microarray data that have been permutated 100 times namely NOTCH2, ITPRIP, FRMD6, GFRA4, OSBPL9, CPXCR1, SORCS2, PDC, C12orf66, SLC38A9, OR10H5, TRIP13, MRPL52, DUSP21, BRCA1, ELTD1, SPG7, LASS6 and DUOX2. This 19-gene signature was able to significantly predict the survival of patients with colorectal cancer compared to the conventional Dukes’ classification in both training and test sets (p < 0.05). The performance of this signature was further validated as a significant independent predictor of survival using patient cohorts from Australia (n = 185), USA (n = 114), Denmark (n = 37) and Norway (n = 95) (p < 0.05). Validation using quantitative PCR confirmed similar expression pattern for the six selected genes. Profiling of these 19 genes may provide a more accurate method to predict survival of patients with colorectal cancer and assist in identifying patients who require more intensive treatment.

Each year an estimated 390 million dengue infections occur worldwide. In Malaysia, dengue is a growing public health concern but estimate of its disease burden remains uncertain. We compared the urban-rural difference of dengue seroprevalence and determined age-specific dengue seroprevalence in Malaysia. We undertook analysis on 11,821 subjects from six seroprevalence surveys conducted in Malaysia between 2001 and 2013, which composed of five urban and two rural series. Prevalence of dengue increased with age in both urban and rural locations in Malaysia, which exceeded 90 % among those aged 70 years or beyond. The age-specific rates of the 5 urban surveys overlapped without clear separation among them, while prevalence was lower in younger subjects in rural series than in urban series, the trend reversed in older subjects. There were no differences in the seroprevalence by gender, ethnicity or region. Poisson regression model confirmed the prevalence have not changed in urban areas since 2001 but in rural areas, there was a significant positive time trend such that by year 2008, rural prevalence was as high as in urban areas. Dengue seroprevalence has stabilized but persisted at a high level in urban areas since 2001, and is fast stabilizing in rural areas at the same high urban levels by 2008. The cumulative seroprevalence of dengue exceeds 90 % by the age of 70 years, which translates into 16.5 million people or 55 % of the total population in Malaysia, being infected by dengue by 2013.

The Malaysian Cohort study was initiated in 2005 by the Malaysian government. The top-down approach to this population-based cohort study ensured the allocation of sufficient funding for the project which aimed to recruit 100 000 individuals aged 35–70 years. Participants were recruited from rural and urban areas as well as from various socioeconomic groups. The main objectives of the study were to identify risk factors, to study gene-environment interaction and to discover biomarkers for the early detection of cancers and other diseases. At recruitment, a questionnaire-based interview was conducted, biophysical measurements were performed and biospecimens were collected, processed and stored. Baseline investigations included fasting blood sugar, fasting lipid profile, renal profile and full blood count. From April 2006 to the end of September 2012 we recruited a total of 106 527participants. The baseline prevalence data showed 16.6% participants with diabetes, 46.5% with hypertension, 44.9% with hypercholesterolaemia and 17.7% with obesity. The follow-up phase commenced in June 2013. This is the most comprehensive and biggest cohort study in Malaysia, and has become a valuable resource for epidemiological and biological research. For information on collaboration and also data access, investigators can contact the project leader at (rahmanj@ppukm.ukm.edu.my).

Resistance to 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a major obstacle to the successful treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) and posed an increased risk of recurrence. DNA methylation has been suggested as one of the underlying mechanisms for recurrent disease and its contribution to the development of drug resistance remains to be clarified. This study aimed to determine the methylation phenotype in CRC for identification of predictive markers for chemotherapy response. We performed DNA methylation profiling on 43 non-recurrent and five recurrent CRC patients using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 Beadchip assay. In addition, CRC cells with different genetic backgrounds, response to 5-FU and global methylation levels (HT29 and SW48) were treated with 5-FU and DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-azadC). The singular and combined effects of these two drug classes on cell viability and global methylation profiles were investigated. Our genome-wide methylation study on the clinical specimens showed that recurrent CRCs exhibited higher methylation levels compared to non-recurrent CRCs. We identified 4787 significantly differentially methylated genes (P < 0.05); 3112 genes were hyper- while 1675 genes were hypomethylated in the recurrent group compared to the non-recurrent. Fifty eight and 47 of the significantly hypermethylated and hypomethylated genes have an absolute recurrent/non-recurrent methylation difference of ≥ 20%. Most of the hypermethylated genes were involved in the MAPK signalling pathway which is a key regulator for apoptosis while the hypomethylated genes were involved in the PI3K-AKT signalling pathway and proliferation process. We also demonstrate that 5-azadC treatment enhanced response to 5-FU which resulted in significant growth inhibition compared to 5-FU alone in hypermethylated cell lines SW48. In conclusion, we found the evidence of five potentially biologically important genes in recurrent CRCs that could possibly serve as a new potential therapeutic targets for patients with chemoresistance. We postulate that aberrant methylation of CCNEI, CCNDBP1, PON3, DDX43 and CHL1 in CRC might be associated with the recurrence of CRC and 5-azadC-mediated restoration of 5-FU sensitivity is mediated at least in part by MAPK signalling pathway.