Karachi:The breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2014 (second most common cancer overall).
This represents about 12 percent of all new cancer cases and two percent of all cancers in women.
The incidence rates vary from 19.3 per 100,000 women in Eastern Africa to 89.7 per 100,000 women in Western Europe. In most of the developing regions the incidence rates are below 40 per 100,000. It has been reported in 2015 as the most prevalent cancer in women.
These views were expressed by the Director, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, while discussing a topic science at the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine during ongoing four-day long 14th biennial conference on molecular biosciences: research and innovation.
The Pakistan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PSBMB) and Dr A.Q. Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (KIBGE), KU, organized the event.
Dr. Asmat Salim of Dr Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, KU, shed lights on separation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into cardiomyocytes: role of small molecules.
She informed that cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death globally. “Current therapeutic approaches are limited in preventing ventricular remodelling following myocardial infarction (MI). The novel therapeutic approach of transplantation of exogenously differentiated cardiomyocytes could be a better option. Mesenchymal stem cells have been used for the treatment of MI to repair the injured myocardium and improve cardiac function.”
Professor Dr Aqeel Ahmad of Barrett Hodgson University, discussed topic of microbial therapeutics, and said that pharmacy is the science and technique of preparing and dispensing drugs with the aim to ensure the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical products.
“The microbial pharmacy may include the use of microbes for health benefits and their preparation as pharmaceutical products in the form of tablets, capsules or powders, containing bacteria in dried form, can help establishing new branch of microbial therapeutics.”
Dr. Soroush Sardari from Drug Design and Bioinformatics Unit, Medical Biotechnology Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, mentioned that the old lock and key concept has been an inspiration for many drug design theories and pharmaceutical purification and analysis tools. She said that one of the off-shoots of such concept is Molecularly Imprinted Polymer.
“The MIP is basically a cavity containing polymer that has been created in the presence of a drug template using the molecular imprinting technique. This process would finally produce a polymer matrix with an affinity for the original drug template molecule and to similar extent to that drug family.”
The Director General, KIBGE, KU, Prof. Dr. Abid Azhar delivered Zain ul Abedin Memorial Lecture and reviewed topic of molecular biology, which was established in the 1930s. He shed lights on the journey from advances in fields such as x-ray crystallography to the use of molecular biology or molecular cell biology approaches in medicine, new drugs, diagnosis of disease, the molecular medicine, the clinical research and medical therapies arising from molecular biology to the gene therapy, will be reviewed.