| 1. |
- Nilsson, Per H., 1980-
(author)
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Interactions between platelets and complement with implications for the regulation at surfaces
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Disturbances of host integrity have the potential to evoke activation of innate immunologic and hemostatic protection mechanisms in blood. Irrespective of whether the activating stimulus is typically immunogenic or thrombotic, it will generally affect both the complement system and platelets to a certain degree. The theme of this thesis is complement and platelet activity, which is intersected in all five included papers. The initial aim was to study the responses and mechanisms of the complement cascade in relation to platelet activation. The secondary aim was to use an applied approach to regulate platelets and complement on model biomaterial and cell surfaces. Complement activation was found in the fluid phase in response to platelet activation in whole blood. The mechanism was traced to platelet release of stored chondroitin sulfate-A (CS-A) and classical pathway activation via C1q. C3 was detected at the platelet surface, though its binding was independent of complement activation. The inhibitors factor H and C4-binding protein (C4BP) were detected on activated platelets, and their binding was partly dependent on surface-exposed CS-A. Collectively, these results showed that platelet activation induces inflammatory complement activation in the fluid phase. CS-A was shown to be a central molecule in the complement-modulatory functions of platelets by its interaction with C1q, C4BP, and factor H.Platelet activation and surface adherence were successfully attenuated by conjugating an ADP-degrading apyrase on a model biomaterial. Only minor complement regulation was seen, and was therefore targeted specifically on surfaces and cells by co-immobilizing a factor H-binding peptide together with the apyrase. This combined approach led to a synchronized inhibition of both platelet and complement activation at the interface of biomaterials/xenogeneic cells and blood.In conclusion, here presents a novel crosstalk-mechanism for activation of complement when triggering platelets, which highlights the importance of regulating both complement and platelets to lower inflammatory events. In addition, a strategy to enhance the biocompatibility of biomaterials and cells by simultaneously targeting ADP-dependent platelet activation and the alternative complement C3-convertase is proposed.
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| 2. |
- Golker, Kerstin, 1969-
(author)
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Fundamental Studies on Molecularly Imprinted Materials
- 2014
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis focuses on fundamental studies aimed at elucidating factors that influence molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) formation and ligand recognition. To this end, a series of computational techniques, in particular chemometrics and molecular dynamics (MD) in conjunction with polymer synthesis and physical characterization studies have been employed. In Paper I, the multivariate analysis method principal component analysis (PCA) was used to investigate the role of incubation media on polymer-ligand recognition, and results highlighted the importance of several solvent parameters on recognition. In Paper II, all-component MD simulations were used to examine the role of polymerization mixture stoichiometry on MIP-template recognition. Correlations between nature and extent of template complexation and recognition were observed. The influence of the acidic functionality of the methacrylic acid used in these polymers on polymer-template recognition and morphology was examined in Paper III. PCA was then used in Paper IV to identify relationships between interactions in the pre-polymerization mixture, polymer functionality, recognition and morphology using the polymers described in Paper II and III.
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| 3. |
- Liu, Tao
(author)
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Chemoinformetics for green chemistry
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis focuses on the development of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSPR) models for physicochemical properties, e.g., vapor pressure and partitioning coefficients. Such models can be used to estimate environmental distribution and transformation of the pollutants or to characterize solvents properties. Here, chemoinformatics was used as an efficient tool for modeling to produce safe chemicals based on green chemistry principles.Experimental determinations are only available for a limited number of the chemicals; however, theoretical molecular descriptors can be used for modeling of all organic compounds. In this thesis, we developed and validated a global and local QSPR model for vapor pressure of liquid and subcooled liquid organic compounds, in which perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) as outliers appeared in the model due to their molecular properties. Subsequently, after the update of the previous model, the vapor pressure of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) for which no reliable experimental data are available was successfully predicted. At the same time, we used partitioning between n-octanol/water (Kow) and water solubility (Sw) to investigate the similarities and differences between linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) and partial least square projection to latent structures (PLS) models. Further, we developed QSPR model for prediction of melting points and boiling points of PFCs using multiple linear regression (MLR), PLS and associative neural networks (ASNN) approaches, meanwhile, the applicability domain of PFCs was also investigated.Experimental, semi-empirical and theoretical quantitative structure-retention relationship (QSRR) models were used to accurately predict retention factors (logk) in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). These models are useful to characterize solvents for determination of the behavior and interactions of molecular structure and develop chromatographic methods. In both of QSPR and QSRR models using the PLS method, the first and second components captured main information which is related to van der Waals forces and polar interactions, and their results coincide with those from LSER.The results showed that the models of physicochemical properties and retention factors (logk) in chromatographic system can be successfully developed by the PLS method. PLS models were able to predict physicochemical properties of organic compounds directly from theoretical descriptors without prior synthesis, measurement or sampling. Further, the PLS method could overcome colinearity in data sets, and it is therefore a rapid, cheap and highly efficient approach
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| 4. |
- Åslund, Andreas, 1978-
(author)
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Designing thiophene-based fluorescent probes for the study of neurodegenerative protein aggregation diseases : From test tube to in vivo experiments
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Protein aggregation is an event related to numerous neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzhemier’s disease and prion diseases. However little is known as to how and why the aggregates form and furthermore, the toxic specie may not be the mature fibril but an on route or off route specie towards mature aggregates. During this project molecular probes were synthesized that may shed some light to these questions. The probes are thiophene based and the technique used for detection was mainly fluorescence. It was shown that the previously established thiophene based in vitro staining technique is valid ex vivo and in vivo. This would not have been possible without the synthesis of a variety of functionalized polymeric thiophene based probes; their in vitro and ex vivo staining properties were taken into consideration when the design of the small oligomeric probes were decided upon. These probes were shown to spectrally distinguish different types of amyloid, pass the bloodbrain barrier within minutes and specifically and selectively stain protein aggregates in the brains of mice.
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| 5. |
- Chavan, Swapnil, 1986-
(author)
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Towards new computational tools for predicting toxicity
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The toxicological screening of the numerous chemicals that we are exposed to requires significant cost and the use of animals. Accordingly, more efficient methods for the evaluation of toxicity are required to reduce cost and the number of animals used. Computational strategies have the potential to reduce both the cost and the use of animal testing in toxicity screening. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to develop computational models for the prediction of toxicological endpoints that can serve as an alternative to animal testing. In Paper I, an attempt was made to construct a global quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR)model for the acute toxicity endpoint (LD50 values) using the Munro database that represents a broad chemical landscape. Such a model could be used for acute toxicity screening of chemicals of diverse structures. Paper II focuses on the use of acute toxicity data to support the prediction of chronic toxicity. The results of this study suggest that for related chemicals having acute toxicities within a similar range, their lowest observed effect levels (LOELs) can be used in read-across strategies to fill gaps in chronic toxicity data. In Paper III a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) classification model was developed to predict human ether-a-go-go related gene (hERG)-derived toxicity. The results suggest that the model has potential for use in identifying compounds with hERG-liabilities, e.g. in drug development.
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| 6. |
- Dunér, Gunnar, 1980-
(author)
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Signal Enhancement by Dynamic Polymers in Quartz Crystal Microbalance Applications
- 2009
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This licentiate thesis presents studies of signal enhancement by dynamic polymers in quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) applications. The aim of the study has been to determine the potential for the use of polymers on QCM sensors for signal enhancement in molecular interaction studies. A method for synthesis of polymer sensor surfaces on QCM substrates was developed based on an iniferter photo polymerization technique. Polymerized poly(acrylic acid) and poly(acryl amide) surfaces were extensively characterized with electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The QCM response dynamics of these surfaces to pH changes was studied and the carboxyl containing surfaces exhibited large, reversible and highly reproducible frequency shifts due to expansion of deprotonated polymer chains. Surface acid dissociation constants (pKa) were determined for poly(acrylic acid) surfaces, carboxymethyldextran surfaces and self-assembled monolayer carboxyl surfaces by means of pH titration in QCM flow-through instrumentation. Surface pKa data was consistent with available literature data. The sensitivity enhancement for molecular interaction studies was investigated for poly(acrylic acid) coated QCM sensors with a model system consisting of immobilized biotin and an anti-biotin Fab fragment. Binding responses of antibiotin Fab to immobilized biotin was revealed to be 11 times higher than the corresponding results for a carboxylated SAM surface.
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| 7. |
- Elmlund, Louise
(author)
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QCM-based sensing using biological and biomimetic interfaces
- 2014
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The objective of this thesis was to explore novel approaches for studying molecular recognition at biological and biomimetic surfaces using the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) biosensor technique. The first two papers focused on the synthesis and study of biotin selective polymer films prepared using the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) technique. Control over polymer structure is of importance for sensor reproducibility and sensitivity, and was addressed in Paper I where a simple strategy for fabricating uniform thin biotin imprinted polymer films was employed. In Paper II the binding of biotin moieties to thin (3-5 nm) biomimetic polymer films was examined and consequences for sensor performance discussed. The potential for using QCM as a tool for assessing the binding of small peptides derived from phage display screening was presented Paper III. Here, screening of a phage peptide library against immobilized adenine resulted in candidate peptides that were studied using this technique. In Paper IV a whole cell-based biosensor was developed for studying interactions with cell membrane-incorporated targets. Epithelial cancer cells, SKOV3, were attached to QCM sensor chips and the binding of the monoclonal antibody HerceptinTM was studied. This approach demonstrates the potential of using QCM to study binding to membrane-incorporated targets, an alternative to assays based upon immobilized receptor structures lacking their natural context.
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