Saira Amir

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Biosciences, Faculty Member

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Papers by Saira Amir

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in Sertoli cells regulates age-dependent changes in sperm DNA methylation

Sperm epigenome undergoes age-dependent changes increasing risks of adverse conditions in offspri... more Sperm epigenome undergoes age-dependent changes increasing risks of adverse conditions in offspring conceived by fathers of advanced age. The mechanism(s) linking paternal age with epigenetic changes in sperm remains unknown. The sperm epigenome is shaped in a compartment protected by the blood-testes barrier (BTB) known to deteriorate with age. Permeability of the BTB is regulated by the balance of two mTOR complexes in Sertoli cells. We hypothesized that this balance is also responsible for age-dependent changes in the sperm epigenome. Experiments with transgenic mice demonstrate that the shift of the balance in favor of mTOR complex two rejuvenates sperm DNA-methylome while the shift in favor of mTOR complex one accelerates aging of the sperm DNA-methylome and results in a reproductive phenotype concordant with older age.One-Sentence SummaryThe balance between mTOR complexes in Sertoli cells regulates sperm methylome aging.

Holistic expression of miR-17-92 cluster in obesity, kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes

Molecular Biology Reports

Characterization of the Gastrointestinal and Reproductive Tract Microbiota in Fertile and Infertile Pakistani Couples

Biology, 2021

The human microbiota is recognized as a vital “virtual” organ of the human body that influences h... more The human microbiota is recognized as a vital “virtual” organ of the human body that influences human health, metabolism, and physiology. While the microbiomes of the gut, oral cavity, and skin have been extensively studied in the literature, relatively little work has been done on characterizing the microbiota of the human reproductive tract organs, and specifically on investigating its association to fertility. Here, we implemented a 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) amplicon sequencing approach to sequence and characterize the gut and genital tract microbiomes from several married Pakistani couples. The recruited individuals included 31 fertile and 35 infertile individuals, with ages ranging from 19–45 years. We identified several fluctuations in the diversity and composition of the gut and genital microbiota among fertile and infertile samples. For example, measures of α-diversity varied significantly between the genital samples donated by fertile and infertile men and there was overall ...

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Association of PCBs and DDTs exposure with infertility in Pakistani population

Toxicology Letters, 2017

S247 potential to considerably reduce the risk of harm caused by environmental "second-hand" toba... more

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Blood Groups Distribution Pattern Among Limited Adult Human Population of District Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

International Journal of Pure and Applied Zoology, 2018

The study was carried to find out the distributional pattern of blood groups of a random populati... more The study was carried to find out the distributional pattern of blood groups of a random population samples from the area of Danyore and Gilgit, Pakistan. The blood samples were taken randomly from population .This study is aimed to determine and find significance valve of blood groups with gender and location. The total of 150 limited blood groups were taken and studied, comprising by 56 males population (37.4%) and 94 females population (62.6%). Among 08 blood groups A+ve has highest count in the total of 150 Population of district Gilgit while Blood Group B-ve and AB-ve has least. The total number of observation for Blood Group A+ve were 34 (22.7%), among these 8 was males and remaining 26 females. This shows that among A+ve Blood Group female were dominate as camper to male. The total number of observation for the Blood Group A-ve were 24 (16%),among these 13 were male and 11 were females. The number of observation for the Blood group B+ve were 28 (18.7%), among these 12 was mal...

Prevalence of Color Vision Defeats (CVD) Among Adult Human Population of District Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

The Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan spans an area of 72,496 square kilometers, bordering China, Afgh... more The Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan spans an area of 72,496 square kilometers, bordering China, Afghanistan, AJK and India. Gilgit Baltistan is connection of three greatest mountain ranges of the world; the Karakorum, the Hindukush and the Himalayas. As a result of its politically sensitive location, the Gilgit Baltistan has been accorded special territorial status; the area was administered directly by the Federal Government, through the “Ministry of Kashmir affairs & Northern Areas (Gilgit Baltistan).

Sensitivity of genes, molecular pathways and disease related categories to chemical exposures

The goal of this project is to identify molecular mechanisms and disease categories sensitive to ... more The goal of this project is to identify molecular mechanisms and disease categories sensitive to chemical exposures in an unbiased way. Results of this project are published on preprints.org (doi: 10.20944/preprints202006.0261.v1). The data-files described below represent major steps of our analysis: 1. Annotated chemical-gene interactions.xlsx The data on chemical-gene interactions obtained from high-throughput toxicological genomic experiments with human, mouse, or rat cells and tissues was extracted from Comparative Toxicogenomic Database (CTD, http://ctdbase.org/) on 08.24.2018. Genes of olfactory receptors were removed from resulting database as these genes have different names in different mammalian species. Chemical compounds were annotated for major uses with information from Wikipedia, PubChem, and PubMed. Based on textual annotation every compound was assigned one to three annotation terms out of the following list: pharmaceutical, recreational drug, research, warfare, endobiotic, agricultural, cosmetics, environment, food components, industrial, and pollutant. All contributors annotated an equal numbers of chemicals, and AS checked every annotation to insure consistency of approaches. The resulting dataset includes 641,516 individual chemical-gene interactions. 2. Number of chemical-gene interactions per gene.xlsx The dataset created at the previous step was used to determine number of chemical-gene annotations for every gene, including total number as well as number of activating and suppressive chemical-gene annotations. We hypothesize, that number of chemical gene interactions can be used as a measure of the gene sensitivity to chemical exposures. 3. Enrichment of molecular pathways with genes sensitive to chemical exposures.xlsx The list of genes with the total number of chemical-gene interactions for every gene was used as an input for the Gene-Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA, https://www.gsea-msigdb.org/gsea/index.jsp) against Hallmark, KEGG, and Reactome datasets, to identify molecular pathways highly enriched with genes sensitive to chemical exposures. We suggest, that normalized enrichment score (NES) for every enriched pathway is a measure of the pathway's sensitivity to chemical exposures. 4. Predicted adverse outcomes_KEGG.xlsx and Predicted adverse outcomes_Reactome.xlsx After identification of the most sensitive pathways (see previous paragraph) we inquired, what adverse outcomes may be associated with perturbation of these pathways. To do so we uploaded lists of the most sensitive KEGG and Reactome pathways (NES > 2.5, FDR < 0.1) to CTD and conducted an association analysis between pathway terms and disease terms. Many disease terms occurred more than one time in the output of this analysis as they were associated with multiple sensitive pathways. We suggest that the number of occurrences is and indicator of the susceptibility of the corresponding health condition to chemical exposures

Elevated levels of DDTs and PCBs in head hair of infertile people from Pakistan

S247 potential to considerably reduce the risk of harm caused by environmental "second-hand" toba... more

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Dysregulation of mitochondrial sirtuin genes is associated with human male infertility

Andrologia, 2021

Mitochondrial sirtuins (SIRT3, SIRT4, SIRT5) are post-translational modifiers that regulate energ... more Mitochondrial sirtuins (SIRT3, SIRT4, SIRT5) are post-translational modifiers that regulate energy production, body homeostasis and mitochondrial activities via different substrates in response to environmental stressors. The present study aimed at assessing the expression of SIRT3, SIRT4, and SIRT5 in the semen of infertile men. Expression analysis was performed using q-RT PCR. All mitochondrial sirtuin genes were significantly down-regulated in the semen of infertile men compared to fertile men. Mitochondrial sirtuin genes expression levels were correlated with mitochondrial HSP90 expression. HSP90 expression was positively correlated with SIRT3, SIRT4 and SIRT5 expression in the semen of fertile men, while a negative correlation was observed between HSP90 in the semen of infertile men and mitochondrial sirtuin genes in the semen of fertile men. These data suggest that dysregulation of mitochondrial sirtuin genes causes mitochondrial dysfunction due to stress, which appears to be associated with human male infertility by compromising functional and structural sperm integrity.