| 1. |
- Baryawno, Ninib, et al.
(author)
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Detection of human cytomegalovirus in medulloblastomas reveals a potential therapeutic target
- 2011
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In: Journal of Clinical Investigation. - 0021-9738 .- 1558-8238. ; 121:10, s. 4043-4055
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Medulloblastomas are the most common malignant brain tumors in children. They express high levels of COX-2 and produce PGE(2), which stimulates tumor cell proliferation. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is prevalent in the human population and encodes proteins that provide immune evasion strategies and promote oncogenic transformation and oncomodulation. In particular, HCMV induces COX-2 expression; STAT3 phosphorylation; production of PGE2, vascular endothelial growth factor, and IL-6; and tumor formation in vivo. Here, we show that a large proportion of primary medulloblastomas and medulloblastoma cell lines are infected with HCMV and that COX-2 expression, along with PGE2 levels, in tumors is directly modulated by the virus. Our analysis indicated that both HCMV immediate-early proteins and late proteins are expressed in the majority of primary medulloblastomas. Remarkably, all of the human medulloblastoma cell lines that we analyzed contained HCMV DNA and RNA and expressed HCMV proteins at various levels in vitro. When engrafted into immunocompromised mice, human medulloblastoma cells induced expression of HCMV proteins. HCMV and COX-2 expression correlated in primary tumors, cell lines, and medulloblastoma xenografts. The antiviral drug valganciclovir and the specific COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib prevented HCMV replication in vitro and inhibited PGE2 production and reduced medulloblastoma tumor cell growth both in vitro and in vivo. Ganciclovir did riot affect the growth of HCMV-negative tumor cell lines. These findings imply an important role for HCMV in medulloblastoma and suggest HCMV as a novel therapeutic target for this tumor.
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| 2. |
- Helgason, Hrodmar, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Sizing of atrial septal defects in adults
- 2005
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In: Cardiology. - : S. Karger AG. - 0008-6312 .- 0008-6312 .- 1421-9751. ; 104:1, s. 1-5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In a retrospective study of 51 consecutive patients undergoing transcatheter closure of secundum type atrial septal defects (ASDs), we examined the reliability of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) prior to catheterization and compared the diameter with that obtained by balloon measurement during catheterization. The TEE diameter was 16.3+/-4.6 mm compared with 22.5+/-6.0 mm for the stretched diameter obtained during catheterization (p<0.001). There was no gender difference. The degree of left-to-right shunting correlated poorly with the size of the defect. We conclude that although TEE is accurate for diagnosis of an ASD, the measurement of its size to determine the size of the closure device is at best inaccurate.
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| 3. |
- Hultborn, Ragnar, 1946, et al.
(author)
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Efficacy of pamidronate in breast cancer with bone metastases: a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled multicenter study
- 1999
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In: Anticancer Res. - 0250-7005. ; 19:4C, s. 3383-92
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of pamidronate 60 mg i.v. q 4 weeks in women with advanced breast cancer with skeletal metastases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 404 woman with skeletal metastases from breast cancer in Sweden and Norway were included in a randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter study. Except for the study medication, other palliative treatment was chosen at the discretion of the physician. Skeletal related events, i.e. increased pain, treatment of hypercalcemia, pathologic fractures of long bones or pelvis, paralyses due to vertebral compression, palliative radiotherapy for skeletal metastases, surgery on bone and change of antitumor therapy were recorded every third month as well as a self-estimated pain-score using visual Analog Scales and analgesic consumption. RESULTS: There was a significantly increased time to progression of pain (p < 0.01), to hypercalcemic events (p < 0.05) as well as for the cumulative number of skeletal related events (p < 0.01) in favor for the pamidronate group. No statistically significant reduction of pathologic fractures of long bones or pelvis, or pareses due to vertebral compression occurred. No statistically significant differences were found for the need of radiotherapy and surgery on bone. The pamidronate group faired better regarding performance status (p < 0.05). There was a statistically not significant lower consumption of opioid analgesics in the pamidronate group (p = 0.14). CONCLUSION: Pamidronate 60 mg i.v. q 4 weeks reduces skeletal events and improves the quality of life in women with bone metastases from breast cancer.
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| 4. |
- Matsoukas, Christos, et al.
(author)
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What Makes Transfer Learning Work for Medical Images : Feature Reuse & Other Factors
- 2022
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In: 2022 IEEE/CVF conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR). - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). ; , s. 9215-9224
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Transfer learning is a standard technique to transfer knowledge from one domain to another. For applications in medical imaging, transfer from ImageNet has become the de-facto approach, despite differences in the tasks and image characteristics between the domains. However, it is unclear what factors determine whether - and to what extent transfer learning to the medical domain is useful. The longstanding assumption that features from the source domain get reused has recently been called into question. Through a series of experiments on several medical image benchmark datasets, we explore the relationship between transfer learning, data size, the capacity and inductive bias of the model, as well as the distance between the source and target domain. Our findings suggest that transfer learning is beneficial in most cases, and we characterize the important role feature reuse plays in its success.
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| 5. |
- Mcgowan, Asmaa, et al.
(author)
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Injectable Biodegradable Silica Depot for Controlled Subcutaneous Delivery of Antisense Oligonucleotides with beyond Monthly Administration
- 2023
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In: Molecular Pharmaceutics. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1543-8384 .- 1543-8392. ; 21:1, s. 143-151
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Single-stranded antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are typically administered subcutaneously once per week or monthly. Less frequent dosing would have strong potential to improve patient convenience and increase adherence and thereby for some diseases result in more optimal therapeutic outcomes. Several technologies are available to provide sustained drug release via subcutaneous (SC) administration. ASOs have a high aqueous solubility and require relatively high doses, which limits the options available substantially. In the present work, we show that an innovative biodegradable, nonporous silica-based matrix provides zero-order release in vivo (rats) for at least 4 weeks for compositions with ASO loads of up to about 100 mg/mL (0.5 mL injection) without any sign of initial burst. This implies that administration beyond once monthly can be feasible. For higher drug loads, substantial burst release was observed during the first week. The concentrations of unconjugated ASO levels in the liver were found to be comparable to corresponding bolus doses. Additionally, infusion using a minipump shows a higher liver exposure than SC bolus administration at the same dose level and, in addition, clear mRNA knockdown and circulating protein reduction comparable to SC bolus dosing, hence suggesting productive liver uptake for a slow-release administration.
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| 6. |
- Saygili, Yasemin, et al.
(author)
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Copper Bipyridyl Redox Mediators for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with High Photovoltage
- 2016
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In: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 138:45, s. 15087-15096
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Redox mediators play a major role determining the photocurrent and the photovoltage in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). To maintain the photocurrent, the reduction of oxidized dye by the redox mediator should be significantly faster than the electron back transfer between TiO2 and the oxidized dye. The driving force for dye regeneration with the redox mediator should be sufficiently low to provide high photovoltages. With the introduction of our new copper complexes as promising redox mediators in DSCs both criteria are satisfied to enhance power conversion efficiencies. In this study, two copper bipyridyl complexes, Cu-(II/I)(dmby)(2)TFSI2/1 (0.97 V vs SHE, dmby = 6,6'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine) and Cu-(II/I)(tmby)(2)TFSI2/1 (0.87 V vs SHE, tmby = 4,4',6,6'-tetramethyl-2,2'-bipyridine), are presented as new redox couples for DSCs. They are compared to previously reported Cu-(II/I)(dmp)(2)TFSI2/1 (0.93 V vs SHE, dmp = bis(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline). Due to the small reorganization energy between Cu(I) and Cu(II) species, these copper complexes can sufficiently regenerate the oxidized dye molecules with close to unity yield at driving force potentials as low as 0.1 V. The high photovoltages of over 1.0 V were achieved by the series of copper complex based redox mediators without compromising photocurrent densities. Despite the small driving forces for dye regeneration, fast and efficient dye regeneration (2-3 mu s) was observed for both complexes. As another advantage, the electron back transfer (recombination) rates were slower with Cu-(II/I)(tmby)(2)TFSI2/1 as evidenced by longer lifetimes. The solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies for [Cu(tmby)(2)](2+/1+), [Cu(dmby)(2)](2+/1+) , and [Cu(dmp)(2)](2+/1+) based electrolytes were 10.3%, 10.0%, and 10.3%, respectively, using the organic Y123 dye under 1000 W m(-2) AM1.5G illumination. The high photovoltaic performance of Cu-based redox mediators underlines the significant potential of the new redox mediators and points to a new research and development direction for DSCs.
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| 7. |
- Weurlander, Maria, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Exploring formative assessment as a tool for learning : students' experiences of different methods of formative assessment
- 2012
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In: Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0260-2938 .- 1469-297X. ; 37:6, s. 747-760
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study aims to provide a greater insight into how formative assessments are experienced and understood by students. Two different formative assessment methods, an individual, written assessment and an oral group assessment, were components of a pathology course within a medical curriculum. In a cohort of 70 students, written accounts were collected from 17 students and group interviews were carried out to explore the students' experiences of these two forms of assessment. All students were engaged in both assessment methods, which were conducted a few weeks apart, and data were collected soon after each assessment. Our findings suggest that formative assessments motivate students to study, make them aware of what they have learned and where they need to study more. Thus, formative assessment can act as a tool for learning, contributing to the process and outcomes of learning. A closer look at students' experiences of each form of assessment reveals interesting differences.
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