University of Gothenburg

About: University of Gothenburg is a education organization based out in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 23855 authors who have published 65241 publications receiving 2606327 citations. The organization is also known as: Göteborg University & Gothenburg University.

The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe

Abstract: From around 2750 to 2500 bc, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 bc. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination of the Beaker complex. We document this phenomenon most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker complex introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry and was associated with the replacement of approximately 90% of Britain's gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries.

Antioxidants can increase melanoma metastasis in mice

Abstract: Antioxidants in the diet and supplements are widely used to protect against cancer, but clinical trials with antioxidants do not support this concept. Some trials show that antioxidants actually increase cancer risk and a study in mice showed that antioxidants accelerate the progression of primary lung tumors. However, little is known about the impact of antioxidant supplementation on the progression of other types of cancer, including malignant melanoma. We show that administration of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) increases lymph node metastases in an endogenous mouse model of malignant melanoma but has no impact on the number and size of primary tumors. Similarly, NAC and the soluble vitamin E analog Trolox markedly increased the migration and invasive properties of human malignant melanoma cells but did not affect their proliferation. Both antioxidants increased the ratio between reduced and oxidized glutathione in melanoma cells and in lymph node metastases, and the increased migration depended on new glutathione synthesis. Furthermore, both NAC and Trolox increased the activation of the small guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) RHOA, and blocking downstream RHOA signaling abolished antioxidant-induced migration. These results demonstrate that antioxidants and the glutathione system play a previously unappreciated role in malignant melanoma progression.

Cerebrospinal fluid protein biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract: The introduction of acetylcholine esterase (AChE) inhibitors as a symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has made patients seek medical advice at an earlier stage of the disease. This has highlighted the importance of diagnostic markers for early AD. However, there is no clinical method to determine which of the patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) will progress to AD with dementia, and which have a benign form of MCI without progression. In this paper, the performance of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein biomarkers for AD is reviewed. The diagnostic performance of the three biomarkers, total tau, phospho-tau, and the 42 amino acid form of β-amyloid have been evaluated in numerous studies and their ability to identify incipient AD in MCI cases has also been studied. Some candidate AD biomarkers including ubiquitin, neurofilament proteins, growth-associated protein 43 (neuromodulin), and neuronal thread protein (AD7c) show interesting results but have been less extensively studied. It is concluded that CSF biomarkers may have clinical utility in the differentiation between AD and several important differential diagnoses, including normal aging, depression, alcohol dementia, and Parkinson’s disease, and also in the identification of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in cases with rapidly progressive dementia. Early diagnosis of AD is not only of importance to be able to initiate symptomatic treatment with AChE inhibitors, but will be the basis for initiation of treatment with drugs aimed at slowing down or arresting the degenerative process, such as γ-secretase inhibitors, if these prove to affect AD pathology and to have a clinical effect.