Macroautophagy (hereafter called autophagy) is a process where proteins, organelles and intracellular micro-organisms are degraded by the lysosome. The autophagosome engulfs a part of the cytoplasm where the cargo is, and transports it to the endosomal-lysosomal system for degradation. Autophagy can also be selective, where cargos are recognized directly by the autophagy receptors or by other proteins ...

Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) causes 5-10 % of breast cancer cases and 25 % of ovarian cancer cases. About 24 % of HBOC are caused by deleterious variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2. Currently, more than 25 different genes have been associated with HBOC, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, many of which encode proteins participating in homologous recombination repair (HRR) and mismatch repair (MMR). ...

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of autoantibodies towards nuclear antigens. Sub-populations of anti-dsDNA antibodies have the potential to bind in the kidney and thereby induce nephritis, but there is no definite distinction that separates non-pathogenic from pathogenic antibodies. There must be parameters that determine anti-dsDNA antibody binding, ...

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is common in the human population with a seropositivity of approximately 60%. The virus is chronically shed from healthy skin, but the genuine host cell remains unknown and a permissive cell culture system is lacking. The viral genome is in an episomal state in cells where MCPyV has been found. The virus is not harmful in healthy individuals, but it is involved in ...

Antimicrobial peptides are part of the innate immune defence of many organisms and represent a novel class of therapeutics due to their broad-spectrum activities, including cytotoxic activity against cancer cells. It has recently been reported that small antimicrobial β2,2-amino acid derivatives (Mw<500), such as LTX-401, possess potent anticancer activity against Ramos human Burkitt’s lymphoma ...

Haemopoiesis occurs in the BM, where haemopoietic stem cells (HSC) reside in a three-dimensional “niche” and give rise to the millions of circulating blood cells required everyday of life. The precise regulation of this immense task occurs by interaction of HSC with other BM cells and extracellular matrix molecules. In addition, the BM vasculature has also now been identified as a key HSC regulator. ...

The transport of cyclic nucleotides out of the cell is energy requiring, dependent on ATP- hydrolysis. The ability to stimulate this ATPase is a hallmark of substrates for ABC-transporters e.g. ABCC5, ABCC4. It is believed that ABCC5 transporter has selective high affinity for cGMP. Previous studies support the idea that ABCC5 contribute to cGMP transport by human erythrocytes. Human erythrocyte ...

Summary Preeclampsia is a clinical syndrome affecting only pregnant women and is defined as new onset of hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. Approximately, 2-7 % of all pregnant women in the developed world are affected by this condition and it is a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Despite intensive research the pathophysiology of preeclampsia is not ...

In recent years the number of people using cigarettes in Norway has significantly declined, with intake of nicotine being replaced by smokeless tobacco (ST) products such as snus placed in the oral cavity. While health risks from smoking cigarettes are well known little is known about health risks of using ST. The main aim of this thesis was to compare the effects of oral use of snus with nicotine ...

The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) play a crucial role in cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, metabolism and motility. Both conventional and atypical MAPKs can phosphorylate other proteins referred to as MAPK- activated protein kinases (MAPKAPK) such as MK5 or p38-regulated /activated protein kinase. Mutations in the MK5 gene have been detected in lung, ...