| 1. |
- Bergström, Petra, et al.
(författare)
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Herpes Simplex Virus 1 and 2 Infections during Differentiation of Human Cortical Neurons
- 2021
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Ingår i: Viruses-Basel. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 13:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2) can infect the central nervous system (CNS) with dire consequences; in children and adults, HSV-1 may cause focal encephalitis, while HSV-2 causes meningitis. In neonates, both viruses can cause severe, disseminated CNS infections with high mortality rates. Here, we differentiated human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) towards cortical neurons for infection with clinical CNS strains of HSV-1 or HSV-2. Progenies from both viruses were produced at equal quantities in iPSCs, neuroprogenitors and cortical neurons. HSV-1 and HSV-2 decreased viability of neuroprogenitors by 36.0% and 57.6% (p < 0.0001), respectively, 48 h post-infection, while cortical neurons were resilient to infection by both viruses. However, in these functional neurons, both HSV-1 and HSV-2 decreased gene expression of two markers of synaptic activity, CAMK2B and ARC, and affected synaptic activity negatively in multielectrode array experiments. However, unaltered secretion levels of the neurodegeneration markers tau and NfL suggested intact axonal integrity. Viral replication of both viruses was found after six days, coinciding with 6-fold and 22-fold increase in gene expression of cellular RNA polymerase II by HSV-1 and HSV-2, respectively. Our results suggest a resilience of human cortical neurons relative to the replication of HSV-1 and HSV-2.
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| 2. |
- Bernhardsson, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental radiation baseline around the Belarusian nuclear power plant – assessments in Belarus and Lithuania
- 2023
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Ingår i: Medical Physics in the Baltic States : Proceedings of the 16<sup>th</sup> International Conference on Medical Physics - Proceedings of the 16<sup>th</sup> International Conference on Medical Physics. - 1822-5721. ; , s. 121-125
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prior to the operation of the first Belarussian nuclear power plant (BelNPP), the baseline of the radiation environment was determined within a radius of about 30 km from BelNPP. This independent assessment was carried out during two expeditions in 2019. In 2022, a similar survey was carried out (during the initialoperation of BelNPP) on the Lithuanian side of the boarder. Here we present the overall project and some general results of the baseline assessments.
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| 3. |
- Bernhardsson, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Radiological environmental monitoring at the ESS facility – Annual report 2020
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Results from the radiological environmental monitoring of the European Spallation Source (ESS) are presented for year 2020.Among the 63 environmental samples analysed for gamma emitting radionuclides, no elevated levels of anthropogenic radioactivity were observed. All samples (except two samples of lichen) had activity concentrations below the MDA for the natural radionuclides as well as 137Cs, and normal levels of 40K. In sewage sludge, detectable levels of 177Lu and 1311 were observed in samples that were measured within one week after sampling.Mobile gamma spectrometry surveys were carried out around ESS and MAX IV (when operating at high frequency during a test run). No deviating radiation levels were observed.The samples analysed for their 3H activity concentration (120 samples) were generally below the detection limit using the current procedure, instrumentation and analysis time (MDA typically 1.6 Bq L-1). The results show no evidence of any local contamination of 3H in Lund during 2020.The 14C data in the 26 samples of grass, fruits, berries, crops, milk, honey and meat of in the Lund area and in southern Sweden is consistent with the declining 14C specific activity in atmospheric CO2. Seasonal variations were observed in the 14C data. No evidence of anthropogenic 14C contamination in the Lund area was noted during 2020.The report presents the first base-line measurements of 129I (10 samples) in the ESS environmental monitoring programme. The 129I activity concentrations ranged between (3.18 ± 0.20)∙1011 atoms/kg d.w. for grass and (1.31 ± 0.03)∙1013 atoms/kg d.w. for moss. These values are in the expected range.
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| 4. |
- Di Francesco, Davide, et al.
(författare)
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Debottlenecking a Pulp Mill by Producing Biofuels from Black Liquor in Three Steps
- 2021
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Ingår i: ChemSusChem. - : Wiley. - 1864-5631 .- 1864-564X. ; 14:11, s. 2414-2425
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- By extracting lignin, pulp production can be increased without heavy investments in a new recovery boiler, the typical bottleneck of a pulp mill. The extraction is performed by using 0.20 and 0.15 weight equivalents of CO2 and H2SO4 respectively. Herein, we describe lignin esterification with fatty acids using benign reagents to generate a lignin ester mixable with gas oils. The esterification is accomplished by activating the fatty acid and lignin with acetic anhydride which can be regenerated from the acetic acid recycled in this reaction. The resulting mass balance ratio is fatty acid/lignin/acetic acid (2 : 1 : 0.1). This lignin ester can be hydroprocessed to generate hydrocarbons in gasoline, aviation, and diesel range. A 300-hour continuous production of fuel was accomplished. By recirculating reagents from both the esterification step and applying a water gas shift reaction on off-gases from the hydroprocessing, a favorable overall mass balance is realized.
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| 5. |
- Domènech-Gil, Guillem, Mr. Doctor, et al.
(författare)
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Electronic Nose for Improved Environmental Methane Monitoring
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Technology. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 58, s. 352-361
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reducing emissions of the key greenhouse gas methane (CH4) is increasingly highlighted as being important to mitigate climate change. Effective emission reductions require cost-effective ways to measure CH4 to detect sources and verify that mitigation efforts work. We present here a novel approach to measure methane at atmospheric concentrations by means of a low-cost electronic nose strategy where the readings of a few sensors are combined, leading to errors down to 33 ppb and coefficients of determination, R-2, up to 0.91 for in situ measurements. Data from methane, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure sensors were used in customized machine learning models to account for environmental cross-effects and quantify methane in the ppm-ppb range both in indoor and outdoor conditions. The electronic nose strategy was confirmed to be versatile with improved accuracy when more reference data were supplied to the quantification model. Our results pave the way toward the use of networks of low-cost sensor systems for the monitoring of greenhouse gases.
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| 6. |
- Edsfeldt, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Human Atherosclerotic Plaque Progression Is Dependent on Apoptosis According to Bomb-Pulse 14C Dating
- 2021
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Ingår i: JACC: Basic to Translational Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2452-302X. ; 6:9-10, s. 734-745
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Individuals with rapidly progressing atherosclerotic plaques are at higher risk of experiencing acute complications. Currently, we lack knowledge regarding factors in human plaque that cause rapid progression. Using the 14C bomb-pulse dating method, we assessed the physical age of atherosclerotic plaques and which biological processes were associated with rapidly progressing plaques. Interestingly, increased apoptosis was the main component associated with a young physical plaque age, reflecting rapid plaque progression. Our findings in combination with recent advances in imaging techniques could guide future diagnostic imaging strategies to identify rapidly progressing plaques or therapeutic targets, halting plaque progression.
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| 7. |
- Eriksson, Daniel, 1987-
(författare)
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Getting to grips with cartons : Interactions of carbonboard packages with an artificial finger
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Packaging is an important part of most products in our modern world. It produces waste, but it also enables products to reach consumers safely and efficiently. Hence, the proper design of packaging is becoming increasingly important. Historically, cartonboard packages were designed for box compression strength. While this remains important, there are other types of loads that are important to consider. One such type of load arises from manual handling. As packages as moved and used, consumers need to exert forces on the package. These forces deform and can damage the package.Understanding these interactions can be challenging. By developing a method for quantifying the deformation due to manual handling, it becomes possible to measure and compare a redesigned package with the original to see if the performance has changed. This can aid packaging designers, but it can also be used for product control. The converting process is complex and deviations from specification can be introduced at many points along the production process.In this work, a method for quantifying interactions similar to those in manual handling is presented and evaluated. The method is then applied to study the effect of position and material properties on the mechanics of the interaction. The method is shown to have low variability and be robust to modifications in packaging and experimental design. It was seen that increasing the size of packages from 82 mm to 98 mm corresponded to decreasing the grammage by 10-20%. The method also showed the stiffening effect of corners and flaps, suggesting that the strategic placement of these design elements could help maintain the desired mechanical properties of the package at the point of interaction, provided the most likely point can be predicted.
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| 8. |
- Eriksson, Maertha, et al.
(författare)
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Structural plasticity of olfactory neuropils in relation to insect diapause
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecology and Evolution. - : Wiley. - 2045-7758. ; 10:24, s. 14423-14434
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many insects that live in temperate zones spend the cold season in a state of dormancy, referred to as diapause. As the insect must rely on resources that were gathered before entering diapause, keeping a low metabolic rate is of utmost importance. Organs that are metabolically expensive to maintain, such as the brain, can therefore become a liability to survival if they are too large. Insects that go through diapause as adults generally do so before entering the season of reproduction. This order of events introduces a conflict between maintaining low metabolism during dormancy and emerging afterward with highly developed sensory systems that improve fitness during the mating season. We investigated the timing of when investments into the olfactory system are made by measuring the volumes of primary and secondary olfactory neuropils in the brain as they fluctuate in size throughout the extended diapause life-period of adult Polygonia c-album butterflies. Relative volumes of both olfactory neuropils increase significantly during early adult development, indicating the importance of olfaction to this species, but still remain considerably smaller than those of nondiapausing conspecifics. However, despite butterflies being kept under the same conditions as before the dormancy, their olfactory neuropil volumes decreased significantly during the postdormancy period. The opposing directions of change in relative neuropil volumes before and after diapause dormancy indicate that the investment strategies governing structural plasticity during the two life stages could be functionally distinct. As butterflies were kept in stimulus-poor conditions, we find it likely that investments into these brain regions rely on experience-expectant processes before diapause and experience-dependent processes after diapause conditions are broken. As the shift in investment strategies coincides with a hard shift from premating season to mating season, we argue that these developmental characteristics could be adaptations that mitigate the trade-off between dormancy survival and reproductive fitness.
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| 9. |
- Eriksson, Sören, et al.
(författare)
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Commercial air transport in Africa : changing structure and development of country pairs
- 2024
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Ingår i: International Journal of Services, Technology and Management. - 1460-6720. ; 29:1, s. 59-75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates cross-border commercial air passenger traffic in Africa, focusing on the development of the 15 busiest country pairs during the period 1989 to 2015. It explores dimensions not previously studied by using ICAO’s ‘Traffic by Flight Stage’ (TFS) and data from the CEPII Gravity Dataset. The spatial results show on an uneven geographical distribution of country pairs with the centre of gravity to South, East and North-East Africa, with one long-distance corridor between Egypt and South Africa. Countries in North and West Africa have rather few linkages, except for Egypt. Central African countries are not represented among the 15 country pairs. Although the number of passengers and the rank among the countries have shifted, South Africa and Egypt stand out, as having most country pair connections. Factors such as changing economic, diplomatic and political relations have had an influence on changing country pair connections throughout the period. A number of variables were selected to investigate how they correlated with Africa’s commercial passenger traffic. Of the seven variables selected, five did show on a correlation and two did partly so. In that view, Africa’s air traffic follows rather typical patterns.
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| 10. |
- Eriksson Stenström, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental levels of radiocarbon in Lund, Sweden, prior to the start of the European Spallation Source
- 2022
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Ingår i: Radiocarbon. - 0033-8222. ; 64:1, s. 51-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a neutron-based research facility under construction in Lund in southern Sweden. The spallation reactions will generate not only the desired neutrons, but also many radioactive byproducts, including 14C. As part of the licensing process, and as recommended by the IAEA, various preoperational studies are being carried out, including mapping the “zero-point” radiation environment around the site. As the city of Lund hosts several facilities using 14C-labeled substances, and since temporary and local 14C contamination have been observed in the past, 14C mapping is an important part of these baseline assessments. We here present a summary of 14C levels in various terrestrial environmental samples in Lund and in southern Sweden during the years 2012 to 2020. These environmental F14C do not display significantly elevated levels compared to sites located remote from Lund. We also describe a local 14C contamination event that was detected at the Lund Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory in 2009. Horse-chestnut leaves collected close to the laboratory exhibited F14C values of up to ∼25% above the clean air background. Elevated values of F14C were also found in a short tree-ring series, especially in 2007. The source of this contamination was identified and successfully removed.
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| 11. |
- Eriksson Stenström, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Identifying radiologically important ESS-specific radionuclides and relevant detection methods
- 2020
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Spallation Source (ESS) is under construction in the outskirts of Lund in southern Sweden. When ESS has entered the operational phase in a few years, an intense beam of high-energy protons will not only produce the desired spallation neutrons from a large target of tungsten, but a substantial number of different radioactive by-products will also be generated. A small part of these will be released to the environment during normal operation. During an accident scenario, a wide range of gases and aerosols may be released from the tungsten target. The palette of radionuclides generated in the ESS target will differ from that of e.g. medical cyclotrons or nuclear power plants, thus presenting new challenges e.g. in the required environmental monitoring to ensure that dose limits to the public are not exceeded. This project (SSM2018-1636), financed by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM), aimed to strengthen competence at Lund University for measurement and analysis of ESS-specific radionuclides. First, an extensive literature review, including modelling as well as experimental analyses, of ESS-relevant radionuclides was performed. We found that radionuclide production in particle accelerators is well-known, while experience with tungsten targets is very limited. As a second part of the project, an independent simplified model of the ESS target sector for the calculations of radionuclide production in the ESS tungsten target was developed using the FLUKA code. We conclude that we have a fairly good agreement with results of other authors, except for 148Gd, and that the calculated radionuclide composition is sensitive to the nuclear interaction models used.In the third part of the project, known environmental measurement technologies for various ESS-relevant radionuclides were reviewed, focussing on pure difficult-to-measure alpha- and beta-emitters. Liquid scintillation counting (LSC) is a suitable technique e.g. for the important beta emitters 3H, 14C, 35S, 31P and 33P. Several ESS radionuclides of relevance for dose estimates have never been investigated by environmental analytical techniques, due to their absence in the normal environment. Alpha spectrometry seems promising for the analysis of alpha-emitting lanthanides, in particular for 148Gd. Among the many types of mass spectrometry techniques, ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) seem to be the most suitable for the analysis of long-lived ESS radionuclides in environmental samples (e.g. 243Am and possibly lanthanides for ICP-MS and 10Be, 14C, 32Si, 36Cl, 60Fe and 129I for AMS).Three experimental parts were performed during the project, related to initiation of radioactivity measurements of aerosols at Lund University, mapping of environmental tritium in the Lund area, and establishment of a method to measure tritium in urine followed by a study of tritium in persons presently living or working in Lund. Aerosols were collected at a rural background station (Hyltemossa near Perstorp, northern Skåne) using a high-volume aerosol sampler with automatic filter change (DHA-80, Digitel). Gamma spectrometry measurements of 7Be agreed rather well with results from a nearby air monitoring station (SSM/FOI). Tritium (radioactive hydrogen) is expected to dominate the source term from the ESS target station to the environment. We have performed several investigations to monitor the current situation of tritium in Lund using LSC: the matrices investigated included air humidity, precipitation, pond water, indoor air at one accelerator facility and urine from the general public as well as from persons who may be occupationally exposed to tritium. Environmental tritium was generally very low (<3.4 Bq L-1), with somewhat higher concentration in the springtime than during the rest of the year. Tritium in the vast majority of the 55 urine samples was also very low: only a few exposed workers were found to have up to 11 Bq L-1 in their urine, which still is very low compared to e.g. reactor workers. Suggestions for further actions and work related to measurement and analysis of ESS relevant radionuclides are presented.
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| 12. |
- Eriksson Stenström, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Project SSM2019-5225: “Marine 14C levels around the Swedish coast” – Additional gamma spectrometric measurements and ICP-MS analysis of brown algae (Fucus spp.)
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The results of the project SSM2019-5225, “Marine 14C levels around the Swedish coast”, financed by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM), are presented in the paper “Spatial and temporal variations of 14C in Fucus spp. in Swedish coastal waters” published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. The project SSM2019-5225 focussed on spatial variations in 14C in Fucus spp. samples collected in 2020 along the entire Swedish west coast, in coastal waters in the very south of Sweden, and for the east coast up into the Gulf of Bothnia. In this report we present results from additional measurements of the Fucus spp. samples, using gamma-ray spectrometry (of 7Be, 40K, 60Co, 137Cs and 131I) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (of Co, Ni, Cd, Gd, Hg and Pb). The gamma spectrometry showed in addition to the expected content of natural 40K also 137Cs and 7Be, and at some places also 60Co and 131I. The ICP-MS analysis revealed a correlation between F14C and Gd, and the highest values of F14C and Gd were found close to Ringhals nuclear power plant. This strengthens the hypothesis that that a significant part of the observed peak in F14C on the west coast originates from Ringhals nuclear power plant.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Hait, A. S., et al.
(författare)
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Defects in LC3B2 and ATG4A underlie HSV2 meningitis and reveal a critical role for autophagy in antiviral defense in humans
- 2020
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Ingår i: Science Immunology. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2470-9468. ; 5:54
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recurrent herpesvirus infections can manifest in different forms of disease, including cold sores, genital herpes, and encephalitis. There is an incomplete understanding of the genetic and immunological factors conferring susceptibility to recurrent herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2) infection in the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we describe two adult patients with recurrent HSV2 lymphocytic Mollaret's meningitis that each carry a rare monoallelic variant in the autophagy proteins ATG4A or LC3B2. HSV2-activated autophagy was abrogated in patient primary fibroblasts, which also exhibited significantly increased viral replication and enhanced cell death. HSV2 antigen was captured in autophagosomes of infected cells, and genetic inhibition of autophagy by disruption of autophagy genes, including ATG4A and LC3B2, led to enhanced viral replication and cell death in primary fibroblasts and a neuroblastoma cell line. Activation of autophagy by HSV2 was sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of the virus and inhibited in the presence of acyclovir, but HSV2-induced autophagy was independent of the DNA-activated STING pathway. Reconstitution of wild-type ATG4A and LC3B2 expression using lentiviral gene delivery or electroporation of in vitro transcribed mRNA into patient cells restored virus-induced autophagy and the ability to control HSV2 replication. This study describes a previously unknown link between defective autophagy and an inborn error of immunity that can lead to increased susceptibility to HSV2 infection, suggesting an important role for autophagy in antiviral immunity in the CNS.
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| 15. |
- Hennings, Viktoria, et al.
(författare)
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The presence of serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA appears to protect primary health care workers from COVID-19.
- 2022
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Ingår i: European journal of immunology. - : Wiley. - 1521-4141 .- 0014-2980. ; 52:5, s. 800-809
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The patterns of humoral and cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 were studied in Swedish primary health care workers (n = 156) for 6 months during the Covid-19 pandemic. Serum IgA and IgG to SARS-CoV-2, T-cell proliferation and cytokine secretion, demographic and clinical data, PCR-verified infection, and self-reported symptoms were monitored. The multivariate method OPLS-DA was used to identify immune response patterns coupled to protection from Covid-19. Contracting Covid-19 was associated with SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing serum IgG, T cell, IFN-γ, and granzyme B responses to SARS-CoV-2, self-reported typical Covid-19 symptoms, male sex, higher BMI, and hypertension. Not contracting Covid-19 was associated with female sex, IgA-dominated, or no antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, airborne allergy, and smoking. The IgG-responders had SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell responses including a cytotoxic CD4+ T-cell population expressing CD25, CD38, CD69, CD194, CD279, CTLA-4, and granzyme B. IgA-responders with no IgG response to SARS-CoV-2 constituted 10% of the study population. The IgA responses were partially neutralizing and only seen in individuals who did not succumb to Covid-19. To conclude, serum IgG-dominated responses correlated with T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 and PCR-confirmed Covid-19, whereas IgA-dominated responses correlated with not contracting the infection.
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Mareschal, Sylvain, et al.
(författare)
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Challenging conventional karyotyping by next-generation karyotyping in 281 intensively treated patients with AML
- 2021
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Ingår i: Blood Advances. - : American Society of Hematology. - 2473-9529 .- 2473-9537. ; 5:4, s. 1003-1016
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although copy number alterations (CNAs) and translocations constitute the backbone of the diagnosis and prognostication of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), techniques used for their assessment in routine diagnostics have not been reconsidered for decades. We used a combination of 2 next-generation sequencing-based techniques to challenge the currently recommended conventional cytogenetic analysis (CCA), comparing the approaches in a series of 281 intensively treated patients with AML. Shallow whole-genome sequencing (sWGS) outperformed CCA in detecting European Leukemia Net (ELN)-defining CNAs and showed that CCA overestimated monosomies and suboptimally reported karyotype complexity. Still, the concordance between CCA and sWGS for all ELN CNA-related criteria was 94%. Moreover, using in silico dilution, we showed that 1 million reads per patient would be enough to accurately assess ELN-defining CNAs. Total genomic loss, defined as a total loss 200 Mb by sWGS, was found to be a better marker for genetic complexity and poor prognosis compared with the CCA-based definition of complex karyotype. For fusion detection, the concordance between CCA and whole-transcriptome sequencing (WTS) was 99%. WTS had better sensitivity in identifying inv(16) and KMT2A rearrangements while showing limitations in detecting lowly expressed PML-RARA fusions. Ligation-dependent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used for validation and was shown to be a fast and reliable method for fusion detection. We conclude that a next-generation sequencing-based approach can replace conventional CCA for karyotyping, provided that efforts are made to cover lowly expressed fusion transcripts.
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| 18. |
- Mattsson, Sören, et al.
(författare)
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Gadolinium in coastal waters -Time trends and possible sources
- 2023
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Ingår i: Medical Physics in the Baltic States 2023 : Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Medical Physics - Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Medical Physics. ; , s. 112-114
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Samples of Fucus serratus and Fucusvesiculosus taken in Swedish coastal waters have beenanalysed for Gd by ICP-MS. The results for one site withfrequent sampling show significantly increasing levelsduring the last 30 years, most likely a result of theincreasing use of Gd-containing contrast agents for MR-imaging at hospitals and other health care institutions.Samples taken at the west-, south- and east-coast in 2020show considerable variation in Gd-concentration fromsite to site with highest level in northern Kattegat.
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| 19. |
- Mattsson, Sören, et al.
(författare)
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Long-time variations of radionuclides and metals in the marine environment of the Swedish west-coast studied using brown algae : (Fucus serratus and Fucus vesiculosus)
- 2022
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The support from SSM has made it possible to continue collecting brown algaefrom the place on the Swedish west coast where regular collections began asearly as 1967. The support has also enabled more extensive analyses ofpreviously collected material than was possible before. This applies to bothsupplementary analyses of previously reported radionuclides and analysis ofnew ones. The project has also enabled a start of more comprehensive analysesof the overall results. This has provided better information about long-termprocesses and seasonal variations for different radionuclides in both toothedwrack (Fucus serratus) and bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus). What is new isthat the sample material has now also been used to analyse metals, both thosewith known toxic effects such as lead, cadmium and mercury, as well as thosethat are of interest in assessing transport routes for radionuclides generated innew radiation sources, such as gadolinium isotopes from the EuropeanSpallation Source (ESS).Regarding the long-term development of various radionuclides in the marineenvironment on the Swedish west coast, the studies show rapidly increasinglevels of iodine-129, decreasing levels of cesium-137, technetium-99 andplutonium-239+240. The carbon-14 analyses suggest a continued inflow of thisradionuclide from the North Sea. The study also shows that the brown algaecould be important for the monitoring of emissions of naturally occurringradioactive materials (NORM) from the offshore oil and gas industry bysystematically studying long-term and seasonal variations of the content ofradium-228 and in the future also radium- 226 and lead-210. Interesting andhitherto unexplained variations in the beryllium-7 content in Fucus have beenmade. The tritium content in Fucus and in seawater has been analysed in alimited number of samples from 2020. No levels beyond the expected normalambient level for tritium have been found.During the 10-year period 2011-2020, there was a doubling of the levels of leadand nickel and a 50% increase in the levels of cadmium and cobalt in Fucus. Formercury a 10-fold decrease is registered between 2011 and 2016 and then adoubling of the concentration between 2016 and 2020. The decreasing trend formercury probably indicates an effect of the gradual phasing out of mercury inSweden and other countries. However, some businesses and companies have anexemption for continued use. For gadolinium there is an increase with a factor ofaround 5 from 2011 to 2020, most likely explained by the increased use ofgadolinium-containing contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging inhealthcare.
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| 20. |
- Nilsson, Christer, et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia : increasing incidence and prognostic implications
- 2023
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Ingår i: Haematologica. - : Ferrata Storti Foundation. - 0390-6078 .- 1592-8721. ; 108:4, s. 1015-1025
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies of therapy-related AML (t-AML) are usually performed in selected cohorts and reliable incidence rates are lacking. In this study, we characterized, defined the incidence over time and studied prognostic implications in all t-AML patients diagnosed in Sweden between 1997 and 2015. Data were retrieved from nationwide population-based registries. In total, 6,779 AML patients were included in the study, of whom 686 (10%) had t-AML. The median age for t-AML was 71 years and 392 (57%) patients were females. During the study period, the incidence of t-AML almost doubled with a yearly increase in t-AML of 4.5% (95% confidence interval: 2.8%-6.2%), which contributed significantly to the general increase in AML incidence over the study period. t-AML solidly constituted over 10% of all AML cases during the later period of the study. Primary diagnoses with the largest increase in incidence and decrease in mortality rate during the study period (i.e., breast and prostate cancer) contributed significantly to the increased incidence of t-AML. In multivariable analysis, t-AML was associated with poorer outcome in cytogenetically intermediate-and adverse-risk cases but t-AML had no significant impact on outcome in favorable-risk AML, including core binding leukemias, acute promyelocytic leukemia and AML with mutated NPM1 without FLT3-ITD. We conclude that there is a strong increase in incidence in t-AML over time and that t-AML constitutes a successively larger proportion of the AML cases. Furthermore, we conclude that t-AML confers a poor prognosis in cytogenetically intermediate-and adverse-risk, but not in favorable-risk AML.
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| 21. |
- Pédehontaa-Hiaa, Guillaume, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of the region-specific risks of accidental radioactive releases from the European Spallation Source
- 2021
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Ingår i: Medical Physics in the Baltic States : Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Medical Physics - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Medical Physics. - 1822-5721. ; , s. 142-146
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a neutron research facility under construction in southern Sweden. The facility will produce a wide range ofradionuclides that could be released into the environment. Some radionuclides are of particular concern such as the rare earth gadolinium-148. In this article, the local environment was investigated in terms of food production and rare earth element concentration in soil. The collected data will later be used to model thetransfer of radioactive contaminations from the ESS.
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| 22. |
- Pédehontaa-Hiaa, Guillaume, et al.
(författare)
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Region-specific radioecological evaluation of accidental releases of radionuclides from ESS
- 2021
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gadolinium-148 is one of the radionuclides of most concern that will be produced in the tungsten target of the European Spallation Source (ESS), as a by-product of the spallation reaction used by the facility to produce neutrons. Since 148Gd a pure alpha emitter, it is both very radiotoxic and difficult to measure. With its half-life of 75 years, it will remain in the environment for a long time if released from the facility during normal operation or after an accident. There are still uncertainties regarding the amounts that actually will be produced by spallation in the tungsten targets of the facility. As Gd-148 does not occur naturally in the environment, there is no information available about its analysis in environmental samples but a few studies provide data from irradiated target material analysed by alpha spectroscopy or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This report is a continuation of the SSM project as described in the SSM report 2020:08, entitled “Identifying radiologically important ESS-specific radionuclides and relevant detection methods” that focused on the ESS-related radionuclides that will be the most relevant to study and monitor in the environment as well as the analytical techniques to detect them. The present report focuses on the rare earth elements (REEs), including their radioactive isotopes, in particular Gd-148, and is intended to highlight the knowledge gaps that exist regarding their fate in the specific environment of the ESS area. In the first part of the report, the available literature on radioecological models was reviewed, with emphasis on ESS-related radionuclides. The existing modelling programmes were surveyed as well as the most relevant environmental parameters and experimental radioecological data required to build models specific to the ESS.In the second part of the report, the area in the vicinity of the ESS was surveyed to identify the important producers of foodstuff, what plant species are grown in the area and also the local husbandry and hunting practices, in order to identify critical pathways after a radioactive dispersion into the environment in connection with a potential accident at the ESS. In the third part of this report, after a thorough literature review and preliminary assays, we propose to investigate the use of ICP-MS for assessment of Gd-148 in the event of an accidental release, knowing that this analytical technique is already used for the measurement of stable Gd and REEs in the environment. The existing methods to extract REEs from environmental samples (soil, water, plants, and animal products) and to properly assess their concentration are described in the form of a literature review. The presented examples of methods were selected to fit the type of environment found around the ESS facility and the local agricultural and horticultural practices. A pilot study was also conducted to test extraction and measurement methods on the specific type of soil around ESS. These results are presented at the end of this report.
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| 23. |
- Reyahi, Azadeh, et al.
(författare)
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An IKBKE variant conferring functional cGAS/STING pathway deficiency and susceptibility to recurrent HSV-2 meningitis.
- 2023
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Ingår i: JCI insight. - 2379-3708. ; 8:21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The mechanisms underlying susceptibility to recurrent herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) meningitis remain incompletely understood. In a patient experiencing multiple episodes of HSV-2 meningitis, we identified a monoallelic variant in the IKBKE gene, which encodes the IKKε kinase involved in induction of antiviral IFN genes. Patient cells displayed impaired induction of IFN-β1 (IFNB1) expression upon infection with HSV-2 or stimulation with double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and failed to induce phosphorylation of STING, an activation marker of the DNA-sensing cyclic GMP-AMP synthase/stimulator of IFN genes (cGAS/STING) pathway. The patient allele encoded a truncated IKKε protein with loss of kinase activity and also capable of exerting dominant-negative activity. In stem cell-derived microglia, HSV-2-induced expression of IFNB1 was dependent on cGAS, TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1), and IKBKE, but not TLR3, and supernatants from HSV-2-treated microglia exerted IKBKE-dependent type I IFN-mediated antiviral activity upon neurons. Reintroducing wild-type IKBKE into patient cells rescued IFNB1 induction following treatment with HSV-2 or dsDNA and restored antiviral activity. Collectively, we identify IKKε to be important for protection against HSV-2 meningitis and suggest a nonredundant role for the cGAS/STING pathway in human antiviral immunity.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Österroos, Albin, et al.
(författare)
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A risk score based on real-world data to predict early death in acute promyelocytic leukemia
- 2022
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Ingår i: Haematologica. - : Ferrata Storti Foundation. - 0390-6078 .- 1592-8721. ; 107:7, s. 1528-1537
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With increasingly effective treatments, early death (ED) has become the predominant reason for therapeutic failure in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). To better prevent ED, patients with high-risk of ED must be identified. Our aim was to develop a score that predicts the risk of ED in a real-life setting. We used APL patients in the population based Swedish AML Registry (n=301) and a Portuguese hospital-based registry (n=129) as training and validation cohorts, respectively. The cohorts were comparable with respect to age (median, 54 and 53 years) and ED rate (19.6% and 18.6%). The score was developed by logistic regression analyses, risk-per-quantile assessment and scoring based on ridge regression coefficients from multivariable penalized logistic regression analysis. White blood cell count, platelet count and age were selected by this approach as the most significant variables for predicting ED. The score identified low-, high-and very high-risk patients with ED risks of 4.8%, 20.2% and 50.9% respectively in the training cohort and with 6.7%, 25.0% and 36.0% as corresponding values for the validation cohort. The score identified an increased risk of ED already at sub-normal and normal white blood cell counts and, consequently, it was better at predicting ED risk than the Sanz score (AUROC 0.77 vs. 0.64). In summary, we here present an externally validated and population-based risk score to predict ED risk in a real-world setting, identifying patients with the most urgent need of aggressive ED prevention. The results also suggest that increased vigilance for ED is already necessary at sub-normal/normal white blood cell counts.
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| 26. |
- Österroos, Albin, et al.
(författare)
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Integrated transcriptomic and genomic analysis improves prediction of complete remission and survival in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia
- 2020
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Ingår i: Blood Cancer Journal. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2044-5385. ; 10:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Relevant molecular tools for treatment stratification of patients >= 65 years with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are lacking. We combined clinical data with targeted DNA- and full RNA-sequencing of 182 intensively and palliatively treated patients to predict complete remission (CR) and survival in AML patients >= 65 years. Intensively treated patients withNPM1andIDH2(R172)mutations had longer overall survival (OS), whereas mutatedTP53conferred lower CR rates and shorter OS.FLT3-ITDandTP53mutations predicted worse OS in palliatively treated patients. Gene expression levels most predictive of CR were combined with somatic mutations for an integrated risk stratification that we externally validated using the beatAML cohort. We defined a high-risk group with a CR rate of 20% in patients with mutatedTP53, compared to 97% CR in low-risk patients defined by high expression ofZBTB7AandEEPD1withoutTP53mutations. Patients without these criteria had a CR rate of 54% (intermediate risk). The difference in CR rates translated into significant OS differences that outperformed ELN stratification for OS prediction. The results suggest that an integrated molecular risk stratification can improve prediction of CR and OS and could be used to guide treatment in elderly AML patients.
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| 27. |
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