Browsing by Author "Ayesha Mushtaq"

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    Feminist slavery and fertility control
    (UMT, Lahore, 2021) Ayesha Mushtaq
    The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a feminist novel that highlights the issues of female fertility, and emphasizing them from a feminist as well as colonial point of view. The novel is set in a dystopian fictional society in the 1980s, a society where the issue of female fertility is concerning. Since the issue discussed in the novel is slightly realistic, the question arises whether or not such a situation may occur in the future, or even near future. Which makes one wonder if a similar situation is even possible. The issue in the novel is that the women of higher class were unable to give birth, so they enslaved women who were already mothers and used them as forced surrogates. By using Qualitative method, the primary text taken is “The Handmaid’s Tale” which will provide the quality for the information for this thesis, and secondly, doctors (gynecologists) will be consulted to see if they think this infertility would get so common that this point could come in future. Surrogacy is very common in the people of elite class. Hence, the aim of this research is to analyze whether this is a possibility for the future or whether Margaret Atwood’s novel is merely just a work of fiction. The biblical concept of the Handmaids is also kept under consideration since the same concept is being used. The high class is even able to buy a woman for fertility. Would society accept this and make it a tradition? Or would it just remain a fad practiced by the elite? Some Christians would also be consulted, for the Biblical information regarding women as a breeding tool and if the puritan’s lied about this? Whether buying women is allowed in Christianity or not? And Is it actually written in the Bible?
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    In silico functional and tumor suppressor role of hypothetical protein pcnxl2 with regulation of the notch signaling pathway
    (Rsc Advances, 2018) Muhammad Naveed; Komal Imran; Ayesha Mushtaq; Abdul Sammad Mumtaz; Hussain A. Janjua; Nauman Khalid
    Since the last decade, various genome sequencing projects have led to the accumulation of an enormous set of genomic data; however, numerous protein-coding genes still need to be functionally characterized. These gene products are called “hypothetical proteins”. The hypothetical protein pecanex-like protein 2 Homo sapiens (PCNXL2) is found to be mutated in colorectal carcinoma with microsatellite instability; therefore, annotation of the function of PCNXL2 in tumorigenesis is very important. In the present study, bioinformatics analysis of PCNXL2 was performed at the molecular level to assess its role in the progression of cancer for designing new anti-cancer drugs. The retrieved sequence of PCNXL2 was functionally and structurally characterized through the web tools Pfam, Batch CD (conserved domain) search, ExPASy, COACH and I-TASSER directed for pathway analysis and design to explore the intercellular interactions of PCNXL2 involved in cancer development. The present study has shown that PCNXL2 encodes multi-pass transmembrane proteins whose tumor suppressor function may involve regulating Notch signaling by transporting protons across the membrane to provide suitable membrane potential for γ secretase function, which may liberate the Notch intracellular domain NICD from the receptor to inside the cell. Furthermore, domain A of PCNXL2 may exhibit nuclear transport activity of NICD from the cytoplasm to the nucleus through interaction with a nuclear localization signal that may act as an activator for Notch signaling in the nucleus. Conclusively, the tumor suppressor role of PCNXL2 by regulation of the Notch signaling pathway and its functional and structural characteristics are important findings. However, further studies are required to validate the putative role of PCNXL2 as a cancer biomarker in cancer development.