| 1. |
- Memedi, Mevludin, et al.
(författare)
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Validity and responsiveness of at-home touch-screen assessments in advanced Parkinson's disease
- 2015
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Ingår i: IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 2168-2194 .- 2168-2208. ; 19:6, s. 1829-1834
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate if a telemetry test battery can be used to measure effects of Parkinson’s disease (PD) treatment intervention and disease progression in patients with fluctuations. Sixty-five patients diagnosed with advanced PD were recruited in an open longitudinal 36-month study; 35 treated with levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) and 30 were candidates for switching from oral PD treatment to LCIG. They utilized a test battery, consisting of self-assessments of symptoms and fine motor tests (tapping and spiral drawings), four times per day in their homes during week-long test periods. The repeated measurements were summarized into an overall test score (OTS) to represent the global condition of the patient during a test period. Clinical assessments included ratings on Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS) and 39-item PD Questionnaire (PDQ-39) scales. In LCIG-naïve patients, mean OTS compared to baseline was significantly improved from the first test period on LCIG treatment until month 24. In LCIG-non-naïve patients, there were no significant changes in mean OTS until month 36. The OTS correlated adequately with total UPDRS (rho = 0.59) and total PDQ-39 (0.59). Responsiveness measured as effect size was 0.696 and 0.536 for OTS and UPDRS respectively. The trends of the test scores were similar to the trends of clinical rating scores but dropout rate was high. Correlations between OTS and clinical rating scales were adequate indicating that the test battery contains important elements of the information of well-established scales. The responsiveness and reproducibility were better for OTS than for total UPDRS.
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| 2. |
- Matar, Amal, et al.
(författare)
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"A perfect society" : Swedish policymakers' ethical and social views on preconception expanded carrier screening
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Community Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1868-310X .- 1868-6001. ; 10:2, s. 267-280
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To improve healthcare policymaking, commentators have recommended the use of evidence, health technology assessment, priority setting, and public engagement in the process of policymaking. Preconception expanded carrier screening, according to the World Health Organization’s definition, is a novel health technology and therefore warrants assessment, part of which involves evaluating ethical and social implications. We examined ten Swedish policymakers’ perspectives on ethical and social aspects of preconception expanded screening through in-depth expert interviewing, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Respondents were affiliated to governmental and non-governmental institutions that directly influence healthcare policymaking in Sweden. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed via inductive thematic analysis method, which generated seven themes and several subthemes. Policymakers harbored concerns regarding the economics, Swedish and international political respects, implementation procedures, and societal effects, which included long-term ones. Moreover, participants detailed the role of public engagement, research, and responsibility in regard to preconception expanded carrier screening implementation. Since this is a qualitative study, with a small non-random sample, the results may not be generalizable to all policymakers in Sweden. However, the results give a profound insight into the process and interpretative knowledge of experts, in the Swedish milieu and the extent of readiness of Sweden to implement a preconception expanded carrier screening program.
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| 3. |
- Enroth, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of Long-Term Storage Time and Original Sampling Month on Biobank Plasma Protein Concentrations
- 2016
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Ingår i: EBioMedicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-3964. ; 12, s. 309-314
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The quality of clinical biobank samples is crucial to their value for life sciences research. A number of factors related to the collection and storage of samples may affect the biomolecular composition. We have studied the effect of long-time freezer storage, chronological age at sampling, season and month of the year and on the abundance levels of 108 proteins in 380 plasma samples collected from 106 Swedish women. Storage time affected 18 proteins and explained 4.8–34.9% of the observed variance. Chronological age at sample collection after adjustment for storage-time affected 70 proteins and explained 1.1–33.5% of the variance. Seasonal variation had an effect on 15 proteins and month (number of sun hours) affected 36 proteins and explained up to 4.5% of the variance after adjustment for storage-time and age. The results show that freezer storage time and collection date (month and season) exerted similar effect sizes as age on the protein abundance levels. This implies that information on the sample handling history, in particular storage time, should be regarded as equally prominent covariates as age or gender and need to be included in epidemiological studies involving protein levels.
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| 4. |
- McGinn, Steven, et al.
(författare)
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New Technologies for DNA analysis-A review of the READNA Project.
- 2016
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Ingår i: New Biotechnology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1876-4347 .- 1871-6784.
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The REvolutionary Approaches and Devices for Nucleic Acid analysis (READNA) project received funding from the European Commission for 4 1/2 years. The objectives of the project revolved around technological developments in nucleic acid analysis. The project partners have discovered, created and developed a huge body of insights into nucleic acid analysis, ranging from improvements and implementation of current technologies to the most promising sequencing technologies that constitute a 3(rd) and 4(th) generation of sequencing methods with nanopores and in situ sequencing, respectively.
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| 5. |
- Moll, Guido, et al.
(författare)
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Different Procoagulant Activity of Therapeutic Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Derived from Bone Marrow and Placental Decidua
- 2015
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Ingår i: Stem Cells and Development. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1547-3287 .- 1557-8534. ; 28:S2, s. 50-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While therapeutic mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) have usually been obtained from bone marrow, perinatal tissues have emerged as promising new sources of cells for stromal cell therapy. In this study, we present a first safety follow-up on our clinical experience with placenta-derived decidual stromal cells (DSCs), used as supportive immunomodulatory and regenerative therapy for patients with severe complications after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We found that DSCs are smaller, almost half the volume of MSCs, which may favor microvascular passage. DSCs also show different hemocompatibility, with increased triggering of the clotting cascade after exposure to human blood and plasma in vitro. After infusion of DSCs in HSCT patients, we observed a weak activation of the fibrinolytic system, but the other blood activation markers remained stable, excluding major adverse events. Expression profiling identified differential levels of key factors implicated in regulation of hemostasis, such as a lack of prostacyclin synthase and increased tissue factor expression in DSCs, suggesting that these cells have intrinsic blood-activating properties. The stronger triggering of the clotting cascade by DSCs could be antagonized by optimizing the cell graft reconstitution before infusion, for example, by use of low-dose heparin anticoagulant in the cell infusion buffer. We conclude that DSCs are smaller and have stronger hemostatic properties than MSCs, thus triggering stronger activation of the clotting system, which can be antagonized by optimizing the cell graft preparation before infusion. Our results highlight the importance of hemocompatibility safety testing for every novel cell therapy product before clinical use, when applied using systemic delivery.
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| 6. |
- Matar, Amal
(författare)
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Considering a Baby? Responsible Screening for the Future : Ethical and social implications for implementation and use of preconception expanded carrier screening in Sweden
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Preconception expanded carrier screening is a novel technology that involves the offer of a screening test for many recessive diseases (via an expanded screening panel) to prospective parents, with no priori risk. Test positive couples have a number of reproductive choices; prenatal diagnosis and aborting affected fetus, IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, sperm or ovum donation or simply accept the risk. The test had been piloted in studies and can potentially be implemented in Europe. Therefore, it seemed pertinent to evaluate stakeholders’ perspectives on ethical and social implications of implementing and using preconception ECS in Sweden.Two main stakeholders were examined; healthcare professionals and health policymaking experts, via a mix of qualitative methods for data collection and data analysis. In Study I, we employed in-depth interviews to collect data and content analysis to analyze it. In Studies III and IV, expert interviews were used to gather data while thematic analysis was utilized to interpret it. Furthermore, in Study II, an ethical concept namely; reproductive autonomy, was critically discussed within a setting that expects a couple to make a conjoint reproductive decision about preconception ECS, while each partner still upholds his or her individual autonomy.The main findings of the empirical studies (Studies I, III and IV) echo to a great extent the prevailing ethical and social debates associated with the novel technology. Respondents expressed concerns with reproductive autonomy, medicalization, prioritization of health resources, discrimination and long term societal changes. Furthermore, respondents emphasized the importance to observe Swedish values, such as human dignity, equality and solidarity, when assessing a preconception ECS program. In addition, they described practicalities of implementation and political considerations that are pertinent to the Swedish context. Finally, some respondents recognized the advantages of reduced suffering and decrease in fetal anomalies and abortion as a consequence of preconception ECS.Study II, proposed a notion of couple autonomy, where certain demands if met, a couple’s reproductive decision can be accepted by healthcare staff as autonomous.The findings, in this thesis, steer towards non implementation of preconception ECS in its current status within the publicly-funded healthcare system in Sweden. This is because healthcare providers and experts were of the opinion that it would not solve a medical need, threaten Swedish values and use up resources extensively.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Birgersson, Madeleine, et al.
(författare)
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Antibody Validation for Estrogen Receptor Beta
- 2022
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Ingår i: Methods in Molecular Biology. - New York, NY : Springer Nature. - 1064-3745 .- 1940-6029. ; 2418, s. 1-23, s. 1-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Antibodies can cross-react with proteins other than their intended targets, and antibody-based applications can, if not properly validated, lead to flawed interpretations. When evaluating 13 anti-estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) antibodies in 2017, we concluded that only one of them was specific. Applying this antibody in immunohistochemistry of over 44 different normal human tissues and 20 types of cancers revealed ERβ expression in only a few selected tissues. This aligned with mRNA evidence but contradicted a large set of published literature. ERβ protein expression continues to be reported in tissues without clear support by mRNA expression. In this chapter, we describe how ERβ antibodies can be thoroughly validated and discuss selection of well-characterized positive and negative controls. The validation scheme presented is applicable for immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. The protocol includes evaluation of mRNA evidence, use of public databases, assessment of on- and off-target binding, and an optional step for corroboration with immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry.
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| 9. |
- Piening, B. D., et al.
(författare)
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Integrative Personal Omics Profiles during Periods of Weight Gain and Loss
- 2018
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Ingår i: Cell Systems. - : Elsevier BV. - 2405-4712 .- 2405-4720. ; 6:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Advances in omics technologies now allow an unprecedented level of phenotyping for human diseases, including obesity, in which individual responses to excess weight are heterogeneous and unpredictable. To aid the development of better understanding of these phenotypes, we performed a controlled longitudinal weight perturbation study combining multiple omics strategies (genomics, transcriptomics, multiple proteomics assays, metabolomics, and microbiomics) during periods of weight gain and loss in humans. Results demonstrated that: (1) weight gain is associated with the activation of strong inflammatory and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy signatures in blood; (2) although weight loss reverses some changes, a number of signatures persist, indicative of long-term physiologic changes; (3) we observed omics signatures associated with insulin resistance that may serve as novel diagnostics; (4) specific biomolecules were highly individualized and stable in response to perturbations, potentially representing stable personalized markers. Most data are available open access and serve as a valuable resource for the community.
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| 10. |
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