Research Output

Publications

2025

Abdulla N, Aronson R, Plessis TD, Bebington B, Kaur M*. Protocol for the establishment and characterization of South African patient-derived intestinal organoids. STAR Protoc. 2025 Jul 22;6(3):103970. Cell Press. Seminal paper describing organoids from African patients and also first protocol for cholesterol staining in organoids.

Preeti, Sharma, B., Kaur, S. et al. Customizing Indolin-2-One-Thiosemicarbazones: Design, Synthesis, Anti-proliferative Assessment Along with In Silico and Electrochemical Investigations. Chemistry Africa (2025).

Razuwika, R., Sookai, S., Aronson, R., Kaur, M. and Munro, O.Q. (2025), A Cytotoxic Indazole-based Gold(III) Carboxamide Pincer Complex Targeting DNA Through Dual Binding Modes of Groove Binding and Alkylation. Chem. Eur. J. e202404345. 

Klima S, Hurrell T, Goolam M, Gouws C, Engelbrecht AM, Kaur M, van den Bout I. A new dawn: Vitalising translational oncology research in Africa with the help of advanced cell culture models. Transl Oncol. 2025 Apr 13;56:102391.

Daya T, Breytenbach A, Gu L, Kaur M*. Cholesterol metabolism in pancreatic cancer and associated therapeutic strategies. Biochem Biophys Acta Mol Cell Biol Lipids. 2025 Mar;1870(2):159578.

Khan F, Abdulla N, du Plessis TL, Karlsson K, Barrow P, Bebington B, Gu L, Kaur M*. Identification and Validation of Biomarkers to Predict Early Diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Its Progression to Colorectal Cancer. Biochem Genet. 2025 Aug;63(4):3717-3743.

Mashatola, L*, Kader, Z, Abdulla, N, Kaur M*. Enhancing the Vietoris–Rips simplicial complex for topological data analysis: applications in cancer gene expression datasets. Int J Data Sci Anal, 2024, pages 1-18

2024

Meyer V, Bush S.J., Botes A, Kaur M*. Editorial: Emerging talents in human and medical genomics. Frontiers in Genetics. 15, 2024.

Sookai S, Perumal S, Kaur M, Munro OQ. Pt(II) Bis(pyrrole-imine) complexes: Luminescent probes and cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cells. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Volume 258, 2024, 112617,

Gu L, Pillay RP, Aronson R, Kaur M*. Cholesteryl ester transfer protein knock-down in conjunction with a cholesterol-depleting agent decreases tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer cells. IUBMB Life. 2024, 76 (9), 712-730.

Zilbauer M, James KR, Kaur M, Pott S, Li Z, Burger A, Thiagarajah JR, Burclaff J, Jahnsen FL, Perrone F, Ross AD, Matteoli G, Stakenborg N, Sujino T, Moor A, Bartolome-Casado R, Bækkevold ES, Zhou R, Xie B, Lau KS, Din S, Magness ST, Yao Q, Beyaz S, Arends M, Denadai-Souza A, Coburn LA, Gaublomme JT, Baldock R, Papatheodorou I, Ordovas-Montanes J, Boeckxstaens G, Hupalowska A, Teichmann SA, Regev A, Xavier RJ, Simmons A, Snyder MP, Wilson KT; Gut Cell Atlas Consortium; Human Cell Atlas Gut Biological Network Consortium. A Roadmap for the Human Gut Cell Atlas. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 20, pages 597–614 (2023).

2023

Saha ST, Abdulla N, Zininga T, Shonhai A, Wadee R, Kaur M*. 2-Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Breast Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2023 May 18;15(10): 2828.

Palma GBH, Kaur M*. miRNA-128 and miRNA-223 regulate cholesterol-mediated drug resistance in breast cancer. IUBMB Life. 2023, 75(9), 743-764.

du Plessis TL, Abdulla N, Kaur M*. The utility of 3D models to study cholesterol in cancer: Insights and future perspectives. Front Oncol. 2023 Apr 3; 13: 1156246.

2022

Kaur, M. and Dlamini, Z., 2022. Cholesterol and Cancer drug resistance: molecular, signalling and therapeutic aspects. Frontiers in Genetics, p.2141.

Lata, S., Saha, S.T., Kaur, M., Awolade, P., Ebenezer, O., Singh, P. and Kumar, V., 2022. Tetrahydro-β-carboline-naphthalimide hybrids: Synthesis and anti-proliferative evaluation on estrogen-dependent and triple-negative breast cancer cells. Journal of Molecular Structure, 1262, p.133053.

Palma, G.B.H. and Kaur, M., 2022. Cholesterol depletion modulates drug resistance pathways to sensitize resistant breast cancer cells to tamoxifen. Anticancer Research, 42(1), pp.565-579.

Monchusi, B. Kaur, M. miRNAs as Modulators of Cholesterol in Breast Cancer Stem Cells: An Approach to overcome Drug Resistance in Cancer. Curr Drug Targets. 2022. 23(6), pp. 656 - 677.

2021

Abdulla, N., Vincent, C.T. and Kaur, M., 2021. Mechanistic insights delineating the role of cholesterol in epithelial mesenchymal transition and drug resistance in cancer. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, p.3282.

Khan, F., Radovanovic, A., Gojobori, T. and Kaur, M., 2021. IBDDB: a manually curated and text-mining-enhanced database of genes involved in inflammatory bowel disease. Database, 2021.

Monchusi, B. and Kaur, M., 2022. miRNAs as modulators of cholesterol in breast cancer stem cells: An approach to overcome drug resistance in cancer. Current drug targets, 23(6), pp.656-677.

Mabhida, S.E., Mashatola, L., Kaur, M., Sharma, J.R., Apalata, T., Muhamed, B., Benjeddou, M. and Johnson, R., 2021. Hypertension in African populations: review and computational insights. Genes, 12(4), p.532.

2020

Sharma, B., Saha, S.T., Perumal, S., Gu, L., Ebenezer, O., Singh, P., Kaur, M. and Kumar, V., 2020. Design, Synthesis, Antiproliferative Evaluation, and Molecular Docking Studies of N-(3-Hydroxyindole)-Appended β-Carbolines/Tetrahydro-β-Carbolines Targeting Triple-Negative and Non-Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. ACS omega, 5(45), pp.28907-28917.

Rani, A., Singh, G.I., Kaur, R., Palma, G., Perumal, S., Kaur, M., Ebenezer, O., Awolade, P., Singh, P. and Kumar, V. (2020). Azide-alkyne cycloaddition en route to ferrocenyl-methoxy-methyl-isatin- conjugates: Synthesis, anti-breast cancer activities and molecular docking studies. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 907, p.121072.

Dhawan, S., Awolade, P., Kisten, P., Cele, N., Pillay, A.S., Saha, S., Kaur, M., Jonnalagadda, S.B. and Singh, P. (2020). Synthesis, cytotoxicity and antimicrobial evaluation of new coumarin©\tagged β©\lactam triazole hybrid. Chemistry & Biodiversity, 17(1), p.e1900462.

Vipan, K., Sharma, B., Gu, L., Pillay, R.P., Cele, N., Awolade, P., Singh, P., and Kaur, M. (2020). Design, Synthesis and anti-proliferative evaluation of 1H-1, 2, 3-triazole grafted tetrahydro-β-carboline-chalcone/ferrocenylchalcone conjugates in Estrogen Responsive and Triple Negative Breast Cancer cells. New Journal of Chemistry, 44, 11137-11147.

Monchusi, B., and Kaur, M. (2020). microRNAs targeting cellular cholesterol: implications for combating anticancer drug resistance. Genes & Cancer, 11:1-2.

Pankaj, S., Saha, S.T., Kaur, M., Oluwakemi, E., Awolade, P., Singh, P., and Kumar, V. (2020). Synthesis and in vitro anti-proliferative evaluation of naphthalimide–chalcone/pyrazoline conjugates as potential SERMs with computational validation. RSC Advances, 10 (27): 15836-15845.

Wellington, K.W., Hlatshwayo, V., Kolesnikova, N.I., Saha, S.T., Kaur, M., and Motadi, L.R. (2020). Anticancer activities of vitamin K3 analogues. Investigational New Drugs, 38:378–391.

Wellington, K.W., Kolesnikova, N.I., Hlatshwayo, V., Saha, ST., Kaur, M., Motadi, L.R. (2020). Anticancer activity, apoptosis and a structure–activity analysis of a series of 1,4-naphthoquinone-2,3-bis-sulfides. Invest New Drugs, 38:274–286.

2019

Kumar, S., Palma, G., Perumal, S., Kaur, M., Singh-Pillay, A., Raj, R., Singh, P. and Kumar, V. (2019). Triarylethylene-indolin-2, 3-dione molecular conjugates: design, synthesis, docking studies and anti-proliferation evaluation. RSC Advances, 9(72), pp.42409-42414.

Gu, L., Saha, S. T., Thomas, J., & Kaur, M. (2019). Targeting cellular cholesterol for anticancer therapy. The FEBS journal, 286(21), 4192-4208.

Sharma, B., Singh, A., Gu, L., Saha, S.T., Singh-Pillay, A., Cele, N., Singh, P., Kaur, M. and Kumar, V. (2019). Diastereoselective approach to rationally design tetrahydro-β-carboline–isatin conjugates as potential SERMs against breast cancer. RSC advances, 9(17), pp.9809-9819.

Esau, L., Zhang, G., Sagar, S., Stingl, U., Bajic, V. B., & Kaur, M. (2019). Mining the deep Red-Sea brine pool microbial community for anticancer therapeutics. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 19(1), 1-10.

2018

Saha, S.T. and Kaur, M. (2018). Delving KS-01 as a novel therapeutic strategy in treating breast cancer. Sept, 2018, Journal of Global Oncology 4, no. Supplement 2. DOI: 10.1200/jgo.18.29900.

Kumar S., Gu L., Palma G., Kaur M., Singh-Pillay A., Singh P., Kumar V. (2018). Design, synthesis, anti-proliferative evaluation and docking studies of 1H-1,2,3-triazole tethered ospemifene–isatin conjugates as selective estrogen receptor modulators. New Journal of Chemistry. 42, 3703-3713.

Kumar, S., Saha, S., Gu, L., Palma, G., Perumal, S., Singh-Pillay, A., Singh, P., Anand, A., Kaur, M and Kumar, V. (2018). 1H-1,2,3-Triazole Tethered Nitroimidazole–Isatin Conjugates: Synthesis, Docking, and Anti-Proliferative Evaluation against Breast Cancer. ACS Omega. 3(9), 12106-12113.

Dhawan, S., Kerru, N., Awolade, P., Singh-Pillay, A., Saha, S.T., Kaur, M., Jonnalagadda, S.B. and Singh, P. (2018). Synthesis, computational studies and antiproliferative activities of coumarin-tagged 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole conjugates against MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry. 26(21), 5612-5623.

Singh, A., Saha, S.T., Perumal, S., Kaur, M. and Kumar, V. (2018). Azide–Alkyne Cycloaddition En Route to 1 H-1, 2, 3-Triazole-Tethered Isatin–Ferrocene, Ferrocenylmethoxy–Isatin, and Isatin–Ferrocenylchalcone Conjugates: Synthesis and Antiproliferative Evaluation. ACS Omega. 3(1), 1263-1268.

Patents

Kaur M, Abdulla N, Aronson A, Perumal S. KS-01 as a cancer therapy neoadjuvant or adjuvant. Provisional patent no: 2022/08061, filed 20th July 2022.

Kaur M., and Saha S. KS-01 for use in the treatment of breast cancer. PCT patent application no: PCT/IN2020/050651. 28 January 2020.