Selective autophagy is important for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Generally, autophagy is considered cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory, acting to limit infection and accumulation of deleterious material. Key to this function is the ability to select cargo to be degraded, and here, selective autophagy receptors play a central role. In this thesis, we show that the anti-inflammatory and ...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease that predominantly affects young women. Knowledge of the processes underlying the development of autoimmunity as well as end-organ disease manifestations is limited. One of the major contributors to morbidity and mortality in SLE patients is the development of nephritis. Using a murine model of SLE we have characterized ...

In the presented work the bacterial family Vibrionaceae was used as a model to investigate bacterial diversity on a gene level and to analyze the underlying concepts of bacterial niche adaptation and evolution. For this, the genomes of a diverse dataset of 64 Vibrionaceae isolates from various environments and temperature zones were analyzed using existing as well as newly developed bioinformatics ...

Background: Prostate cancer is a heterogeneous disease, ranging from indolent and slow growing, to aggressive and lethal. Due to insufficient prognostic tools, there is a significant overtreatment of patients with harmless disease. Differentiating which patients benefit from radical treatments remains a huge challenge, and there is an urgent need to find new and better prognostic tools that may aid ...

In this thesis different factors that promote or inhibit heart remodelling induced by angiotensin II were studied. The following conclusions can be drawn: 1. The presence of elevated levels of Ang II in the perfusion buffer did not increase myocardial injury during ischemia-reperfusion. However, the ability to protect the heart by ischemic postconditioning was lost. This seemed to be due to ...

Albeit a rare pregnancy complication, fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (FNAIT) due to anti-human platelet antigen (HPA)-1a antibodies carries a significant risk of intracranial bleeding in the fetus and newborn. Reduced birth weight is another possible complication of FNAIT. Currently, there is no specific treatment to prevent or treat FNAIT, neither exist screening programs identifying ...

Oral streptococci are important members of the oral microbiome that are gathering more attention due to the presence of antimicrobial resistance determinants and their association with mobile genetic elements. Mobile genetic elements such as the ICE, Tn916 are abundant in bacterial populations and have been implicated in the spread of antibiotic resistance. Despite their abundance, little is known ...

Prescriptions of antibiotics in Norway, and the effect of antibiotics on bacteria were investigated. The aim was to describe the consumption of antibiotics through prescriptions to patients and address how antibiotics can favour bacterial resistance. Several methods were applied, multivariate statistics, quantile regression and mathematical modelling of experimental conditions aided in the investigations. ...

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Challenges related to drug resistance, side effects, and poor response rates makes cancer treatment complicated. However, different forms of immunotherapy have been effective for some cancer patients. Oncolytic therapies which can be administered directly intratumorally represent a promising form of immunotherapy. The aim of oncolytic therapies ...

Infections caused by bacteria are the third leading cause of death worldwide. Antimicrobials are used to treat and prevent those infections and enabled the development of the modern healthcare system as we know it. However, those achievements are threatened by the global emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. There is an obvious need for developing new antimicrobials. Natural environments, ...