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| 2. |
- Bin Kaderi, Mohamed Arifin, 1978-
(författare)
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Assessment of Novel Molecular Prognostic Markers in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The clinical course of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is highly heterogeneous, which has prompted the search for biomarkers that can predict prognosis in this disease. The IGHV gene mutation status and certain genomic aberrations have been identified as reliable prognostic markers of clinical outcome for this disorder. However, the search for more feasible prognostic markers in CLL is still being pursued. Recently, certain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the GNAS1, BCL2 and MDM2 genes and the RNA expression levels of the LPL, ZAP70, TCL1, CLLU1 and MCL1 genes were suggested as novel prognostic markers in CLL. In papers I-III, we performed genotyping analyses of the GNAS1 T393C, BCL2 -938C>A and MDM2 SNP309 polymorphisms in 268-418 CLL patients and related the genotypes with clinical data. Association studies between the polymorphisms and established prognostic markers (i.e. IGHV mutation status, genomic aberrations, CD38 expression) were also performed. Our studies did not find any significant relationship between these SNPs with either clinical outcome or other known prognostic markers in CLL. In paper IV, we measured the RNA expression levels of LPL, ZAP70, TCL1, CLLU1 and MCL1 in 252 CLL cases and correlated these levels with clinical outcome. Here, we verified that high expression of all these RNA-based markers, except MCL1, were associated with an unfavourable prognosis. We also confirmed a close relationship between IGHV mutation status and the RNA-based markers, especially for LPL and CLLU1 expression. Among the RNA-based markers, multivariate analysis revealed LPL expression as the strongest independent prognostic marker for overall survival and time to treatment. Furthermore, the RNA-based markers could add further prognostic information to established markers in subgroups of patients, with LPL expression status giving the most significant results. In summary, data from papers I-III could not verify the GNAS1 T393C, BCL2 -938C>A and MDM2 SNP309 polymorphisms as prognostic markers in CLL. Future SNP markers must hence be confirmed in large, independent cohorts before being proposed as prognostic marker in CLL. In paper IV, we conclude that LPL expression appears to be the strongest among the RNA-based markers for CLL prognostication. Further efforts to standardize LPL quantification are required before it can be applied in the clinical laboratory to predict clinical outcome in this disease.
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- Senkowski, Wojciech
(författare)
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High-throughput screening using multicellular tumor spheroids to reveal and exploit tumor-specific vulnerabilities
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- High-throughput drug screening (HTS) in live cells is often a vital part of the preclinical anticancer drug discovery process. So far, two-dimensional (2D) monolayer cell cultures have been the most prevalent model in HTS endeavors. However, 2D cell cultures often fail to recapitulate the complex microenvironments of in vivo tumors. Monolayer cultures are highly proliferative and generally do not contain quiescent cells, thought to be one of the main reasons for the anticancer therapy failure in clinic. Thus, there is a need for in vitro cellular models that would increase predictive value of preclinical research results. The utilization of more complex three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures, such as multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS), which contain both proliferating and quiescent cells, has therefore been proposed. However, difficult handling and high costs still pose significant hurdles for application of MCTS for HTS.In this work, we aimed to develop novel assays to apply MCTS for HTS and drug evaluation. We also set out to identify cellular processes that could be targeted to selectively eradicate quiescent cancer cells. In Paper I, we developed a novel MCTS-based HTS assay and found that nutrient-deprived and hypoxic cancer cells are selectively vulnerable to treatment with inhibitors of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). We also identified nitazoxanide, an FDA-approved anthelmintic agent, to act as an OXPHOS inhibitor and to potentiate the effects of standard chemotherapy in vivo. Subsequently, in Paper II we applied the high-throughput gene-expression profiling method for MCTS-based drug screening. This led to discovery that quiescent cells up-regulate the mevalonate pathway upon OXPHOS inhibition and that the combination of OXPHOS inhibitors and mevalonate pathway inhibitors (statins) results in synergistic toxicity in this cell population. In Paper III, we developed a novel spheroid-based drug combination-screening platform and identified a set of molecules that synergize with nitazoxanide to eradicate quiescent cancer cells. Finally, in Paper IV, we applied our MCTS-based methods to evaluate the effects of phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors in PDE3A-expressing cell lines.In summary, this work illustrates how MCTS-based HTS yields potential to reveal and exploit previously unrecognized tumor-specific vulnerabilities. It also underscores the importance of cell culture conditions in preclinical drug discovery endeavors.
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| 4. |
- Lind, Anne-Li, et al.
(författare)
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Affinity Proteomics Applied to Patient CSF Identifies Protein Profiles Associated with Neuropathic Pain and Fibromyalgia
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Objective: Today, there are no biological tests on which to base pain diagnoses, treatment choices or to understand the biological processes underlying and accompanying chronic pain for the individual pain patient. Relevant biological markers would greatly aid in diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic pain. Our study aimed to find proteins in CSF associated with fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain, two common and poorly understood chronic pain conditions.Methods: We have performed CSF protein profiling of 55 proteins using a 100-plex antibody suspension bead array. We collected, analyzed and compared CSF samples from 25 patients with neuropathic pain (two independent sets, n=14 patients for discovery and n=11 for verification), 40 patients with fibromyalgia and 135 controls without neurological disease from two different populations.Results: We found significant differences in CSF protein levels between patients and controls (p<0.05). Among these proteins, Apolipoprotein C1 (APOC1) was found to be increased in CSF of neuropathic pain patients compared to controls and there was a non-significant trend for increased levels also in fibromyalgia patient CSF. Ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase (ENPP2, Autotaxin) was increased in the CSF of fibromyalgia patients compared to all other groups including neuropathic pain patients. Multivariate analysis revealed partially overlapping and partially distinct CSF profiles in neuropathic pain patients compared with fibromyalgia and controls for several other proteins including angiotensinogen (AGT), prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase (PTGDS), neurexin-1 (NRXN1), superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) and superoxide dismutase 3 (SOD3).Conclusions: Our results, suggest that the CSF protein profiles of neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia patients may be different from each other and from those of controls. CSF levels of APOC1, ENPP2, AGT, PTGDS, NRXN1, SOD1 and SOD3 should be further investigated for their potential to serve as biomarkers of different kinds of pain pathophysiology.
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| 5. |
- Juth, Niklas, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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The Ethics of Screening in Health Care and Medicine: Serving Society or Serving the Patient?
- 2012
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Medical or health-oriented screening programs are amongst the most debated aspects of health care and public health practices in health care and public health ethics, as well as health policy discussions. In spite of this, most treatments of screening in the research literature restrict themselves to isolated scientific aspects, sometimes complemented by economic analyses or loose speculations regarding policy aspects. At the same time, recent advances in medical genetics and technology, as well as a rapidly growing societal focus on public health concerns, inspires an increase in suggested or recently started screening programs. This book involves an in-depth analysis of the ethical, political and philosophical issues related to health-oriented screening programs. It explores the considerations that arise when heath care interacts with other societal institutions on a large scale, as is the case with screening: What values may be promoted or compromised by screening programs? What conflicts of values do typically arise – both internally and in relation to the goals of health care, on the one hand, and the goals of public health and the general society, on the other? What aspects of screening are relevant for determining whether it should be undertaken or not and how it should be organised in order to remain defensible? What implications does the ethics of screening have for health care ethics as a whole? These questions are addressed by applying philosophical methods of conceptual analysis, as well as models and theories from moral and political philosophy, medical ethics, and public health ethics, to a large number of ongoing and proposed screening programs which makes this book the first comprehensive work on the ethics of screening. Analyses and suggestions are made that are of potential interest to health care staff, medical researchers, policy makers and the general public.
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| 7. |
- Aulin, Cecilia, 1979-
(författare)
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Extracellular Matrix Based Materials for Tissue Engineering
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The extracellular matrix is (ECM) is a network of large, structural proteins and polysaccharides, important for cellular behavior, tissue development and maintenance. Present thesis describes work exploring ECM as scaffolds for tissue engineering by manipulating cells cultured in vitro or by influencing ECM expression in vivo. By culturing cells on polymer meshes under dynamic culture conditions, deposition of a complex ECM could be achieved, but with low yields. Since the major part of synthesized ECM diffused into the medium the rate limiting step of deposition was investigated. This quantitative analysis showed that the real rate limiting factor is the low proportion of new proteins which are deposited as functional ECM. It is suggested that cells are pre-embedded in for example collagen gels to increase the steric retention and hence functional deposition. The possibility to induce endogenous ECM formation and tissue regeneration by implantation of growth factors in a carrier material was investigated. Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is a growth factor known to be involved in growth and differentiation of bone and cartilage tissue. The BMP-2 processing and secretion was examined in two cell systems representing endochondral (chondrocytes) and intramembranous (mesenchymal stem cells) bone formation. It was discovered that chondrocytes are more efficient in producing BMP-2 compared to MSC. The role of the antagonist noggin was also investigated and was found to affect the stability of BMP-2 and modulate its effect. Finally, an injectable gel of the ECM component hyaluronan has been evaluated as delivery vehicle in cartilage regeneration. The hyaluronan hydrogel system showed promising results as a versatile biomaterial for cartilage regeneration, could easily be placed intraarticulary and can be used for both cell based and cell free therapies.
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| 8. |
- Berglund, Fanny, et al.
(författare)
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Evidence for wastewaters as environments where mobile antibiotic resistance genes emerge
- 2023
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The emergence and spread of mobile antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in pathogens have become a serious threat to global health. Still little is known about where ARGs gain mobility in the first place. Here, we aimed to collect evidence indicating where such initial mobilization events of clinically relevant ARGs may have occurred. We found that the majority of previously identified origin species did not carry the mobilizing elements that likely enabled intracellular mobility of the ARGs, suggesting a necessary interplay between different bacteria. Analyses of a broad range of metagenomes revealed that wastewaters and wastewater-impacted environments had by far the highest abundance of both origin species and corresponding mobilizing elements. Most origin species were only occasionally detected in other environments. Co-occurrence of origin species and corresponding mobilizing elements were rare in human microbiota. Our results identify wastewaters and wastewater-impacted environments as plausible arenas for the initial mobilization of resistance genes.
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| 9. |
- Mordenfeld, Arne, et al.
(författare)
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Histological and histomorphometrical analyses of biopsies harvested 11 years after maxillary sinus floor augmentation with deproteinized bovine and autogenous bone
- 2010
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Ingår i: Clinical Oral Implants Research. - : Wiley. - 0905-7161 .- 1600-0501. ; 21:9, s. 961-970
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective The purpose of the present study was to histologically and histomorphometrically evaluate the long-term tissue response to deproteinized bovine bone (DPBB) particles used in association with autogenous bone and to compare particle size after 6 months and 11 years, in the same patients, in order to determine possible resorption. Material and methods Twenty consecutive patients (14 women and six men) with a mean age of 62 years (range 48-69 years) with severe atrophy of the posterior maxilla were included in this study. Thirty maxillary sinuses with < 5 mm subantral alveolar bone were augmented with a mixture of 80% DPBB and 20% autogenous bone. Eleven years (mean 11.5 years) after augmentation, biopsies were taken from the grafted areas of the 11 patients who volunteered to participate in this new surgical intervention. The following histomorphometrical measurements were performed in these specimens: total bone area in percentage, total area of the DPBB, total area of marrow space, the degree of DPBB-bone contact (percentage of the total surface length for each particle), the length of all DPBB particles and the area of all DPBB particles. The length and the area of the particles were compared with samples harvested from the same patients at 6 months (nine samples) and pristine particles from the manufacturer. Results The biopsies consisted of 44.7 +/- 16.9% lamellar bone, 38 +/- 16.9% marrow space and 17.3 +/- 13.2% DPBB. The degree of DPBB to bone contact was 61.5 +/- 34%. There were no statistically significant differences between the length and area of the particles after 11 years compared with those measured after 6 months in the same patients or to pristine particles from the manufacturer. Conclusion DPBB particles were found to be well integrated in lamellar bone, after sinus floor augmentation in humans, showing no significant changes in particle size after 11 years.
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| 10. |
- Lind, Anne-Li
(författare)
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Biomarkers for Better Understanding of the Pathophysiology and Treatment of Chronic Pain : Investigations of Human Biofluids
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Chronic pain affects 20 % of the global population, causes suffering, is difficult to treat, and constitutes a large economic burden for society. So far, the characterization of molecular mechanisms of chronic pain-like behaviors in animal models has not translated into effective treatments.In this thesis, consisting of five studies, pain patient biofluids were analyzed with modern proteomic methods to identify biomarker candidates that can be used to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology chronic pain and lead to more effective treatments.Paper I is a proof of concept study, where a multiplex solid phase-proximity ligation assay (SP-PLA) was applied to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for the first time. CSF reference protein levels and four biomarker candidates for ALS were presented. The investigated proteins were not altered by spinal cord stimulation (SCS) treatment for neuropathic pain. In Paper II, patient CSF was explored by dimethyl and label-free mass spectrometric (MS) proteomic methods. Twelve proteins, known for their roles in neuroprotection, nociceptive signaling, immune regulation, and synaptic plasticity, were identified to be associated with SCS treatment of neuropathic pain. In Paper III, proximity extension assay (PEA) was used to analyze levels of 92 proteins in serum from patients one year after painful disc herniation. Patients with residual pain had significantly higher serum levels of 41 inflammatory proteins. In Paper IV, levels of 55 proteins were analyzed by a 100-plex antibody suspension bead array (ASBA) in CSF samples from two neuropathic pain patient cohorts, one cohort of fibromyalgia patients and two control cohorts. CSF protein profiles consisting of levels of apolipoprotein C1, ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase family member 2, angiotensinogen, prostaglandin-H2 D-isomerase, neurexin-1, superoxide dismutases 1 and 3 were found to be associated with neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia. In Paper V, higher CSF levels of five chemokines and LAPTGF-beta-1were detected in two patient cohorts with neuropathic pain compared with healthy controls.In conclusion, we demonstrate that combining MS proteomic and multiplex antibody-based methods for analysis of patient biofluid samples is a viable approach for discovery of biomarker candidates for the pathophysiology and treatment of chronic pain. Several biomarker candidates possibly reflecting systemic inflammation, lipid metabolism, and neuroinflammation in different pain conditions were identified for further investigation.
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