#Karolinska Institutet

[andiatas]

H.M. The Queen's speech at Goodes Prize Science Day, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

Distinguished guests, researchers, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a true pleasure to be here today with you to open this important scientific event.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) for organising the Science Day, in collaboration with Professor Kivipelto’s team at Karolinska Institutet and the FINGERS Brain Health Institute.

Sweden is honoured to host this gathering as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Melvin R. Goodes Prize and recognise the outstanding accomplishments of the remarkable scientists who have received this prestigious award.

It is wonderful to see so many leading researchers from around the world come together to discuss the latest breakthroughs in the field. I sincerely hope that this meeting will inspire further innovation and global collaboration in our efforts to find more effective ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Thanks to greater prosperity and advances in medicine, people are now living longer than before - a positive development for all of us. However, this increased longevity has also led to a sharp rise in the number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Advanced age remains the primary risk factor for dementia, making it especially valuable that the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is placing significant emphasis on the ‘biology of aging’.

This focus is essential for identifying new ways to prevent and treat these diseases. In the fight against dementia, there are many reasons to prioritise preventive measures. Any efforts to prevent or delay the onset of dementia can have a significant impact on individuals and the society. In Sweden, we have seen a great deal of innovation in this field.

The FINGER model, developed by Professor Kivipelto and her team, has gained global recognition and now includes trials that combine lifestyle interventions with pharmacological treatments, thanks to the support of the ADDF. It is encouraging to see progress in the development of new treatments, and continued support for clinical trials is crucial to this advancement.

New advancements in early detection and diagnosis will be a key focus during this science day. The introduction of new blood-based biomarkers promises to significantly enhance early detection and treatment, potentially transforming both research and patient care. I am delighted to be here for this special occasion, as Professor Henrik Zetterberg from Gothenburg, Sweden, receives the 10th Goodes Prize for his groundbreaking work in this field. Warm congratulations to him on this well-deserved recognition.

It is wonderful to see all the previous Goodes Prize winners gathered here as well. Each of these scientists represents the very best minds in Alzheimer’s research. By fostering communication and exchanging ideas across borders, programmes and research areas, they are paving the way toward the future of dementia prevention and treatment.

As everyone here knows, dementia does not discriminate – it can affect anyone, no matter where they are from – so global collaboration among scientists is essential to deliver effective solutions to patients.

While there are many opportunities ahead, there are also several challenges. I am deeply grateful for the work you are all doing to advance this critical field. I have seen firsthand the profound impact of Alzheimer’s disease. Questions related to dementia research and care have been close to my heart for many years. This commitment inspired me to establish the Silviahemmet foundation in 1996, with a mission to provide education in dementia care, and to offer tailored care options focusing on enhancing quality of life.

Over the years I have had the pleasure of attending several Alzheimer’s conferences here at Karolinska, and I look forward to hosting the eleventh Queen Silvia Nursing Award Grand Ceremony later this week.

I firmly believe that by working together and sharing knowledge, we can build a dementia-friendly society and ensure that research findings are translated into real-world applications. Alzheimer’s disease challenges us to think creatively and act collectively.

Once again, I extend my deepest gratitude to the ADDF for organising this vital event together with Karolinska Institutet and the FINGERS Brain Health Institute. Thank you all for being here and for your dedication and work in this crucial field.

I wish you a productive and inspiring conference, and a wonderful stay in Stockholm!

Speech held by Queen Silvia at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, on September 9, 2024.

[regenhealthsolutions]

New treatment may improve pumping capacity in heart failure

New treatment may improve pumping capacity in heart failure

A clinical study at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that the hunger hormone ghrelin can increase the heart’s pumping capacity in heart failure. The results have been published in the European Heart Journal. Around 200,000 Swedes are estimated to live with heart failure, which is a condition where the heart’s pumping ability is impaired, for example after a heart…

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet have made a major discovery in how human cells produce energy. Their study, published in The EMBO Journal, reveals the detailed mechanisms of how mitochondria process transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, which are essential for energy production. Mitochondria need properly processed tRNAs to make proteins for energy. Problems in tRNA processing can lead to serious mitochondrial diseases. Until now, the exact process of tRNA maturation in mitochondria was not well understood. "Our study reveals, at a molecular level, how the mitochondrial RNase Z complex recognizes and processes tRNA molecules," said Genís Valentín Gesé, the first author of the study. "By using advanced cryo-electron microscopy, we've been able to visualize the complex in action, capturing snapshots of tRNA at different stages of maturation. This is a significant step forward in understanding how our cells produce energy and maintain healthy function."

Continue Reading.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Gothenburg have identified a biomarker that could become an important tool for health care in assessing patients with acute COVID-19 infection. The researchers have studied interleukin (IL)-26, a signaling substance in the immune system, which has been shown to reflect the severity of the disease, viral load, and the need for hospital care.

The work is published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

"In our study, we have seen that immune signaling through IL-26 is closely linked to the severity of illness in COVID-19 patients," says the lead author of the study, Dr. Eduardo Cárdenas, who was affiliated with the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet at the time of the study.

Professor Anders Lindén, at the same institute, leads the research group and is a senior physician at the Karolinska Severe COPD Center, Karolinska University Hospital.

"Our new study confirms the connection between acute COVID-19 and IL-26 that we previously demonstrated in a smaller group of patients. By now examining a large and well-characterized group of patients, we have been able to show that IL-26 has the potential to become an easily accessible biomarker for quickly assessing which patients are at risk of severe disease progression, especially patients with COPD and asthma," says Lindén.

The researchers have analyzed samples from a large number of COVID-19 patients examined by Professor Magnus Gisslén's research group at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.

The results show that IL-26 levels are higher in male than in female patients, which may reflect the fact that men are more vulnerable to the infection. The IL-26 levels were also higher in patients with COPD and asthma, two patient groups that have been suspected to be sensitive to COVID-19. Overall, the IL-26 level appears to provide important information on how the immune system responds under different health conditions.

This discovery opens new ways to monitor and manage patients with acute COVID-19 in emergency care, which can contribute to faster and more personalized interventions.

The new research could lead to IL-26 being established as a routine biomarker in health care and improve the ability to predict and treat severe disease progression at an early stage.

More information: Eduardo I. Cardenas et al, Systemic increase in IL-26 is associated with severe COVID-19 and comorbid obstructive lung disease, Frontiers in Immunology (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1434186 www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1434186/full

[solrosan]

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun

for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Press release

[bpod-bpod]

Preserving Pipework

A protein called Troy (Tnfrsf19) defines a population of progenitor cells that have a key role in the maintenance of the lining of the oesophagus [food pipe]

Read the published research article here

Image from work by David Grommisch and colleagues

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in bioRxiv, March 2024 (not peer reviewed)

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[materialsscienceandengineering]

New ways to strengthen biomimetic spider-silk

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found that spiders have a special trick to make their silk strong, by using a natural biocompatible molecular enhancer. By using the same secret the researchers are able to create biomimetic spider-silk fibers in a non-toxic way. The study is published in Advanced Functional Materials. Spider silk is known for being a strong and environmentally friendly material, while biomimetic spider silk-like fibers currently fall short in terms of mechanical performance. One strategy to increase the mechanical strength of biomimetic spider silk-like fibers is by introducing amyloid-forming motifs (fibrillar protein assembles) into spider silk proteins (spidroins). However, it is then important to note that amyloid fibrils are inherently toxic, e.g., silk nanofibrils derived from cocoons, potentially associated with various diseases.

Read more.

[queensilvy]

The Drottning Diaries

On January 16th, 2024, Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden awarded scholarships to researchers. The scholarships were for research about children and disabilities. The ceremony where the researchers received the awards was held at the Royal Palace. The scholarships were awarded from Queen Silvia's Jubilee Trust.

The researchers that received scholarships from Queen Silvia's Jubilee Trust:

Anita Birovecz, PhD student at Karolinska Institutet Katja Sjöblom, PhD student at Karolinska Institutet Karin Persson, PhD student at Lund University Livia van Leuven, PhD student at Karolinska Institutet Jonas Mellgren, PhD student at the University of Gothenburg Anna Hallin Provenzano, PhD student at Karolinska Institutet Elizabeth Jennions, PhD student at the University of Gothenburg Emma Hedlund, PhD student at Lund University Maria Dellenmark-Blom, PhD student at Sahlgrenska Academy

pc: kungahuset

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Sarah Kuta

September 20, 2023

Tetris is one of the world’s best-selling video games and even the subject of a recent film — but the beloved 1980s digital puzzle may also help improve your mental health.

More specifically, psychologists are studying whether playing Tetris can help reduce the number of flashbacks or intrusive memories people have after a traumatic experience, such as sexual assault, a car accident, combat, a natural disaster, or a difficult childbirth.

Most people — roughly 70 percent — have had some traumatic experience in their lives.

But only a small fraction of the population, around 4 percent, will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosable psychological issue with symptoms ranging from sleep disturbances to self-destructive behaviors.

But whether trauma leads to full-blown PTSD or not, painful memories can spring to mind without warning.

Flashbacks are not only emotionally distressing, but they can also make it difficult to concentrate, which can lead to problems at work or school.

These intrusive memories often pop up as a picture or a short movie in our mind’s eye.

Against this backdrop, British psychologist Emily Holmes wondered if she could reduce the number of flashbacks people had by giving their brains a competing image to focus on shortly after they experienced trauma, while their memories were still forming.

The painful recollection would still exist, it just wouldn’t intrude as often.

“The human mind isn’t like a video camera — it doesn’t just immediately record everything we’ve experienced,” says Emily Holmes, a psychology professor at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University in Sweden.

“It actually takes some time, possibly hours, before a memory gets solidified into mind. What we were interested in was: Is there something we can do as the memory is still consolidating that would help it not become a flashback?”

A ‘cognitive vaccine’

Her team began testing an array of visuospatial tasks that involve generating or manipulating images in the mind’s eye, such as imagining a constellation or tapping out a complex pattern.

One day, a student suggested they try a video game — and Tetris became the obvious answer.

“It involves colors, it involves space because you’re having to move blocks around to complete lines and, critically, it requires you to rotate the shapes in your mind’s eye,” Holmes says.

“You really have to use your mental imagery skills because you’re trying to fit the blocks into the right place.”

They started to experiment with Tetris — first, in the lab, by showing participants a traumatic film and, later, in the real world, by meeting with people in hospital emergency departments who’d just been in car accidents.

In both settings, people who played Tetris within hours of the trauma experienced significantly fewer flashbacks over the course of the next week compared to those who didn’t.

(58 percent fewer in the film study, and 62 percent fewer in the car accident study)

Based on the promising results of this proactive, preventative approach — which Holmes describes as being like a “cognitive vaccine” — they next turned their attention to established memories.

“The reality is, we’re not going to be able to get to most people within a few hours of a traumatic event occurring,” she says.

“People can have intrusive memories for years or decades, so clearly we need to do something for those older memories.”

In one study, Holmes’ team asked people receiving treatment for PTSD to focus on a specific flashback while playing Tetris for 25 minutes once a week for several weeks.

By the end of the experiment, participants saw a 64 percent reduction in the number of times that specific memory popped up, as well as an 11 percent reduction in memories they hadn’t targeted.

In another study, they worked with intensive care unit nurses who had established intrusive memories — including many that were more than three months old — of traumatic events from the COVID-19 pandemic.

After four weeks, nurses who played Tetris experienced one-tenth the number of intrusive memories compared to those who did not play.

They also reported improvements in other symptoms, such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression.

Overall, nurses who played Tetris saw a 73 to 78 percent reduction in flashbacks.

As Holmes points out, there’s probably nothing special about Tetris specifically.

She suspects any task with high visuospatial demands — like drawing, doing a jigsaw puzzle, or making mosaics — might achieve similar results.

However, tasks that are verbally distracting, like doing a crossword or reading, probably wouldn’t work as well.

Tetris as a coping tool

Importantly, in their experiments, researchers aren’t just handing over a Game Boy and telling people to start playing Tetris.

Rather, they first ask participants to call to mind a particularly bad piece of a memory, called a hotspot.

Then, during gameplay, they instruct patients to mentally rotate the shapes, called tetrominoes, in their mind’s eye before they fall into the field of play.

They also ensure participants play Tetris for a sufficient length of time, usually between 10 and 20 minutes.

So far, all of their work has involved this procedure, which the researchers suspect is important to achieving results.

“Historically, intrusive memories of trauma are quite difficult to treat because they’re stuck in your mind for a reason — your brain’s gone into red alert and is trying to keep you safe,” says Holmes.

“They’re just really tricky things to alter. So if you’re just playing a game, it may help take your mind off things or reduce distress, but it might not help stop the flashbacks from intruding in the future.”

Still, playing Tetris on your own, without following the research procedure, likely won’t hurt you — and it may even help you feel better.

Canadian therapist Morgan Pomells recommends it to her clients as a coping tool for soothing feelings of anxiety or hyperarousal.

She doesn’t use Tetris during therapy sessions but, rather, suggests it as a potential option for moments when distressing memories or mental images arise during daily life.

“It’s one of the tools in the toolbox,” she says.

“A lot of people find it to be really helpful, especially people who have a really visual element to some of the symptoms they experience.

Turning to Tetris and being able to really sink into that game, even just for a couple minutes, allows them to feel a little safer and it really quiets their minds.

And when they resurface, they’re in a calmer state and actually able to take stock of their surroundings.”

However, Pomells cautions, Tetris or any other type of coping tool is not a substitute for seeing a therapist.

Holmes echoes that sentiment, adding that people who are suffering from flashbacks should first seek evidence-based treatment from a healthcare provider.

While Tetris may eventually become an evidence-based treatment itself, right now, researchers are still in the early stages of gathering clinical evidence.

“This is more of a journey of curiosity,” says Holmes.

Additional clinical studies are underway now. In the future, researchers also hope to test the long-term effects of Tetris on flashbacks, as well as understand what’s actually happening in the brain.

More broadly, they want to see if Tetris is effective at reducing intrusive memories related to other conditions beyond trauma, such as substance abuse disorders and depression.

“Mental images can haunt people in a variety of forms and I think it’s a real scientific challenge of the future,” says Holmes.

“It’s like being a physicist some centuries ago. We’ve just started to see the stars and planets, now we’ve got to go explore them.”

Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer.

It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s.

After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, the rights reverted to Pajitnov in 1996, who co-founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.

—

Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian computer engineer and video game designer who is best known for creating, designing, and developing Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).

[xylophonetangerine]

I was recently reading about the Paolo Macchiarini case and it got me thinking a little bit. Why is tracheal replacement so difficult anyway? It's just a tube of cartilage, right? The Karolinska institutet should hire me.

[andiatas]

H.M. The Queen's speech at the symposium Challenges for implementation of new Alzheimer Disease treatments

Ladies and gentlemen Researchers

It is a pleasure to be here today at this symposium supported by the “Foundation for Gamla Tjänarinnor (Old Servants)” and to learn more about the challenges for implementation of new Alzheimer Disease treatments.

This Conference is especially important since Alzheimer is one of the greatest and most complex health challenges of our time.

Just like so many people, all over the world, I too have come to learn how devastating this disease is. I have seen closely what it does to those who suffer from it, and to their loved ones.

Ladies and gentlemen,

You are world-leading researchers in Alzheimer disease, and I am deeply touched by your commitment to this cause. You have gathered here at the Nobel Forum to go through the immense research progress we have recently seen for early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer. For example, we will have new drugs, so called immunotherapies – a great step forward!

But as always, there is a lot more that can be done and must be done. During the years, I have tried to find ways to assist in the everyday lives of those affected. One example is Silviahemmet, that I founded in 1996, with the mission to spread knowledge about dementia through various educational initiatives. Another example is Queen Silvia Nursing Award, which is a project to promote a positive development in the nursing and assistant nurse profession, especially regarding elderly care.

It makes me happy to see further initiatives taking place in other countries. Recently, I inaugurated a hospital in the city of Forst in Germany. Forst is on its way to become the most dementia-friendly city in the country. A very impressive project.

It is my sincere hope that this meeting will bring you inspiration and new opportunities to advance in your ambition and I am sure you will have good discussions to come closer to solutions for the many challenges that lie ahead of us.

And let me assure you: I have never, ever lost hope, that we will find a way to beat the disease.

I wish you all the best and look forward to following your important work.

Thank you!

Speech held by H.M. Queen Silvia at Karolinska institutet in Stockholm on Jan. 18, 2024.

[wyvern-of-the-evening]

The similar brain structure to the opposite sex type study also shows the same results for homosexuals as trans identifying people.

Multiple studies show that gay males tend to have more symmetry between the lobes than heterosexual males, which is comparable to the average female, and grey/white matter levels similar to the average female, with the reverse being the case for lesbians.

This isn’t to say that gay men have the brains of women or lesbians the brains of males. This is to show that the brain is a mosaic.

There are many reasons for your brain structure to change or be different. Trauma, substance abuse, degenerative brain diseases, hormone imbalance (including those who don’t identify as trans), mental illness, and the biggest one — GENETICS. If your parents suffered from any of the above, engaged in specific activities, had procedures, take medicine, etc. then you are going to be affected by those afflictions before you are even born. Even if it was your grandparents.

The idea that brain structure differences are indicative of “actually being the opposite sex” is absurd. There could be any combination of reasons for that. Sexual orientation, maybe the combination of that and PTSD from abuse suffered due to being same sex attracted. You all love to shout until you’re blue in the face that you can never tell who is or isn’t trans, but that’s the problem. I don’t know which of these transwomen are “true women” (an impossibility) or which ones are benefiting from the ability to self identify into an oppressed class.

To end this off, I’m going to repeat a point I’ve seen thousands of times over; even if you had a “female brain” in a male body, you still have a male body. I don’t think TIMs should have to use the men’s rooms or TIFs the womens’ however I expect them to respect reality and demand a space for themselves.

Trauma : [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Substance abuse : 1] [2] [3] [4]

I love how TERFs always seem to forget the detail where its proven that trans people have the brains of the sex they identify as. Woopsy doodles.

[mindblowingscience]

A study conducted by researcher Juan Du's research group at the Karolinska Institutet sheds light on the capabilities of our gut microbes and their metabolites. The findings reveal potent inhibitory effects on the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and suggest interactions and signaling between gut microbes and pathogens. The study, published in the journal Gut Microbes, focuses on identifying key microbes within the gut microbiome that inhibit the growth of pathogens, particularly antibiotic-resistant strains. Strains from Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium butyricum, and Enterobacter maltosivorans and their metabolites were found to directly inhibit the growth of pathogens, including multi-drug-resistant ones.

Continue Reading.

[appleplanet-pl]

Badanie pokazuje, że sztuczna inteligencja może przewidzieć rokowania w raku piersi potrójnie ujemnym

Naukowcy z Karolinska Institutet w Szwecji przeprowadzili badania nad skutecznością różnych modeli sztucznej inteligencji (AI) w prognozowaniu przebiegu potrójnie negatywnego raka piersi poprzez analizę określonych komórek układu odpornościowego w obrębie guza. Wyniki badania, opublikowane w prestiżowym czasopiśmie eClinicalMedicine, są ważnym krokiem w kierunku zastosowania AI w onkologii, co…

[solrosan]

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman

for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020. Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.

Link to the press release

[bpod-bpod]

Sensing the Barrier

Macrophages – large multifunctional, tissue cells of the immune system – are found closely associated with sensory nerve clusters called ganglia. This study identifies their role in monitoring the permeability of the nerve-blood vessel interface (barrier) by sensing molecules in the blood

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Harald Lund and colleagues

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Journal of Experimental Medicine, December 2023

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