http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news from Karolinska Institutet For the first time, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have managed to obtain detailed images of the way in which the transport protein GLUT transports sugars into cells. Since tumours are highly dependent on the transportation of nutrients in order to be able to grow rapidly, the researchers are hoping that the study published in the scientific magazine Nature Structural & Molecular Biology will form the basis for new strategies to fight cancer cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-cancer-cell-fuel-paves-drugs.html Cancer Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:00:06 EST news286350863 Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a method for assessing the effect of tamoxifen, a common drug to prevent the relapse of breast cancer. The key lies in monitoring changes in the proportion of dense tissue, which appears white on a mammogram, during treatment. Women who show a pronounced reduction in breast density during tamoxifen treatment have a fifty per cent reduction in breast cancer mortality. This tool provides doctors with the possibility to assess whether a patient is responding to tamoxifen at an early phase of treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-mammograms-reveal-response-common-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:00:01 EST news285854929 The disrupted metabolism of sugar, fat and calcium is part of the process that causes the death of neurons in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now shown, for the first time, how important parts of the nerve cell that are involved in the cell's energy metabolism operate in the early stages of the disease. These somewhat surprising results shed new light on how neuronal metabolism relates to the development of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-early-stage-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:00:13 EST news285854606 (Medical Xpress)—A new Swedish study published in the journal Neurology shows that the risk of developing dementia may have declined over the past 20 years, in direct contrast to what many previously assumed. The result is based on data from SNAC-K, an ongoing study on aging and health that started in 1987. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-dementia.html Neuroscience Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:57:25 EST news285580638 There are socioeconomic differences in Sweden in survival amongst people with malignant skin melanoma, according to a new study published in the European Journal of Cancer. Melanoma patients with a lower educational background are much more likely to die of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-linked-premature-death-malignant-skin.html Cancer Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:24:35 EST news285323051 The sensation of having a physical body is not as self-evident as one might think. Almost everyone who has had an arm or leg amputated experiences a phantom limb: a vivid sensation that the missing limb is still present. A new study by neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that it is possible to evoke the illusion of having a phantom hand in non-amputated individuals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-neuroscientists-phantom-sensations-non-amputees.html Neuroscience Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:41:09 EST news284888453 New findings in mitochondrial biology thoroughly change the idea scientists had for 20 years on the role and importance of the protein MTERF1. For the first time, Max Planck researcher Mügen Terzioglu and her colleagues in Germany and Sweden investigated in vivo what was up to now only explored in cell culture. Using the mouse as a model organism, she made a surprising discovery: MTERF1 does after all not play the key role in mitochondrial transcription and translation that was hitherto ascribed to it. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-mitochondrial-biology-long-standing-ideas-protein.html Medical research Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:00:09 EST news284114522 More than 80 genetic 'spelling mistakes' that can increase the risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer have been found in a large, international research study within the framework of the EU Network COGS. For the first time, the researchers also have a relatively clear picture of the total number of genetic alterations that can be linked to these cancers. Ultimately the researchers hope to be able to calculate the individual risk of cancer, to better understand how these cancers develop and to be able to generate new treatments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-unique-reveals-genetic-common-cancers.html Cancer Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:07:33 EST news283604832 The incidence of genital warts, or condylomata, declined by 93 per cent in girls given the HPV vaccine before the age of 14, according to a Swedish national registry study. The study was carried out by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-incidence-genital-warts-young-girls.html Cancer Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:00:10 EST news282404794 Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found an explanation for why the level of kynurenic acid (KYNA) is higher in the brains of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disease with psychosis. The study, which is published in the scientific periodical Molecular Psychiatry, identifies a gene variant associated with an increased production of KYNA. The discovery contributes to the further understanding of the link between inflammation and psychosis – and might pave the way for improved therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-gene-variant-psychotic-features-bipolar.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:00:05 EST news281643115 (Medical Xpress)—A drug that is currently used for cancer can relieve and slow down the progression of the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS) in rats, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE. The discovery, which was made by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, might one day lead to better forms of treatment for patients with MS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-cancer-drug-treatment-multiple-sclerosis.html Medical research Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:02:01 EST news280663311 A lack of the protein endoglin in the blood vessels of tumour-bearing mice enables the spread of daughter tumours, according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden in a study published in the scientific periodical The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Given that the tumour vasculature constitutes an important barrier to the spread of cancer cells, the team suggests that drugs should be developed to strengthen the blood vessels' protective function. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-tumor-blood-vessels-cancer-cells.html Cancer Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:00:04 EST news279716892 New research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that men who take vitamin C supplements regularly run a higher risk of developing kidney stones. The study, which is published in the scientific periodical JAMA Internal Medicine, did not however observe an increased risk between kidney stones and multivitamins – which contain lower concentrations of vitamin C. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-vitamin-supplements-linked-kidney-stones.html Health Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:00:07 EST news279197716 A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) run a high risk of heart attack, stroke and heart failure, regardless of migration background. According to principal investigator Tahereh Moradi, the study is the first in the world to examine the risk of cardiovascular diseases in male and female MS patients with both non-immigrant and immigrant backgrounds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-high-cardiovascular-diseases-swedish-born-immigrant.html Neuroscience Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:48:35 EST news279190107 (Medical Xpress)—Survivors of cancer of the central nervous system (CNS) in childhood are at heightened risk for disturbance in body image and self-image in relation to sports or other physical activities, according to a nationwide study from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-disturbed-body-image-cns-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 04 Feb 2013 06:40:01 EST news279181022