Fungal pathogens are using several mechanisms to circumvent the inhibitory actions of antifungal drugs. The variety of these mechanisms was revealed in recent years by several laboratories with molecular approaches. Besides the identification of genes involved in antifungal drug resistance and the discovery of alternative pathways of resistance (i.e. biofilm formation), novel concepts in the un...

OBJECTIVE To assess the frequency of primary drug resistance among newly diagnosed tuberculosis cases in Karachi. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Multicentric study involving various TB clinics and treatment centres of Karachi between April to December 2005. METHODOLOGY The frequency of drug resistance among new TB patients was evaluated using a non-probabi...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) translationally repressing their target messenger RNAs due to their gene-regulatory functions play an important but not unexpected role in a tumour development. More surprising are the findings that levels of various miRNAs are well correlated with presence of specific tumours and formation of metastases. Moreover, these small regulatory molecules play a role in the resistanc...

This study was planned to determine HIV seroprevalence among pulmonary tuberculosis patients, to characterize the isolated mycobacteria into typical and atypical strains and to evaluate the drug resistant pattern of mycobacterial isolates. The study aims to correlate multidrug resistance (MDR) and HIV seropositivity status in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. During the year 1994-1997, 750 pulmo...

Despite the improvement in clinical outcomes derived by the introduction of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) in the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumours harbour EGFR-activating mutations, prognosis remains unfavourable because of the occurrence of either intrinsic or acquired resistance. We reviewed th...

Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) is a leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted infections in developed and undeveloped countries, and therefore a global public health issue. In an era of increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, resistance has been an exceedingly rare phenomenon in C. trachomatis; however, clinical treatment failures attributed to multidrug-resistant C. trach...

Despite continuous advances in the knowledge of breast cancer pathophysiology, this type of neoplasia remains a leading cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide. Carcinogenesis takes a progressive course from somatic mutations, alteration of the DNA repair mechanisms, inhibition of growth suppressors, followed by cell proliferation, tissue invasion and risk of metastasis. Less than 10% ...

Loss of DNA mismatch repair is a common finding in many types of sporadic human cancers as well as in tumors arising in patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer. The effect of the loss of DNA mismatch repair activity on sensitivity to a panel of commonly used chemotherapeutic agents was tested using one pair of cell lines proficient or deficient in mismatch repair due to loss of hMSH2...