Livelong immunosuppressive treatment is needed after renal transplantation. Tacrolimus has been the cornerstone in most transplant centers. Its narrow therapeutic window and large inter- and intra-individual variability ...

Extracellular vesicles are small round bodies secreted from the membranes of most living cells, including bacteria. The bacterial vesicles contain many of the same components as the mother bacteria and play numerous roles ...

Legumain is an enzyme present in most cells but its dysregulation is associated with several diseases. During stem cell differentiation, legumain stimulates fat cell and inhibits osteoblast differentiation. This thesis ...

Main research findings In the field of bioanalysis, drug molecules and endogenous compounds can be determined and quantified from biological samples such as blood and urine. However, the complexity of such biological ...

Paper-based sample collection has gained increased attention during the past few decades for its simplicity and applicability to a wide range of matrices and analytes. Particularly for sampling of blood. Compared to ...

In this thesis, it has been shown that the management of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the immigrant women in Norway and the native Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates was largely suboptimal in terms of lifestyle ...

After transplantation patients receive individualized immunosuppressive treatment based on drug concentrations to hinder rejection of the transplant. This thesis aimed to develop and apply alternative methods of measuring ...

Inonotus obliquus (Chaga) is a strange-looking fungus growing on birch trees in the Northern Hemisphere. Chaga is perhaps best known for its use in traditional medicine, where the fungus is used as an herbal tea against ...

In this thesis, focus was on further developing EME and PALME as bioanalytical sample preparation techniques. EME and PALME differ in the fundamental principles for extraction, and they may therefore be advantageous for ...

The prevalence of metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) has increased dramatically worldwide the last decades. Lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity have preventive as well as therapeutic ...

The cysteine protease legumain is reported to be involved in the pathologies of several inflammatory conditions. The subcellular localization of legumain is thought to be mainly lysosomal. However, translocation to other ...

Medicinal plants form the basis of traditional medicine health systems and play an important role in meeting primary healthcare needs around the world. At the same time, traditional knowledge on medicinal plants is eroding ...

The NMDA-receptor is a central part of the machinery that enables us to learn, form memories and develop a normal brain. It is expressed all over the central nervous system and is responsible for signalling between nerve ...

Hypothyroidism is a thyroid dysfunction defined by inadequate production of thyroid hormones. This dysfunction is common (3%) in pregnant women and women of reproductive age. When the condition occurs during pregnancy, the ...

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are treated with renal replacement therapy (RRT), which consist of either dialysis or renal transplantation. Pharmacological therapy is essential for these patients, but can be ...

Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs of abuse, but heroin itself is considered an inactive prodrug which acts mainly through its metabolites. The work of this doctoral thesis highlights the role of heroin’s first ...

There is extensive interindividual variability in drug response and tolerability. One of the major reasons for this is differences in drug metabolism, which may reflect pharmacogenetic variability and/or environmental ...

The work presented in this thesis employed knowledge in medicinal chemistry to discover new compounds aiming to reduce resistance in infections caused by virulent Gram-negative bacteria, resistant to antibiotics. The general ...

The results presented in this thesis describe the investigation of Piscirickettsia salmonis derived membrane vesicles (MVs) as a vaccine candidate against salmonid rickettsial septicemia. MVs are small spherical structures ...

Sambucus nigra L. or black elder has a long history of use in traditional European medicine for treatment of inflammations, infections, diabetes and for boosting the immune system. The aim of this thesis was to investigate ...

Antimicrobial resistance is a global concern that threatens our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Measures to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance are valuable, but new antimicrobial treatments are also ...

Exercise can prevent and treat metabolic diseases. This thesis aimed to study energy metabolism in cultured human myotubes from subjects with different metabolic profile and training status, and to study effects of an in ...

Estrogens are regarded as neuroprotectors, but effects by estrogens may be either beneficial or harmful. This thesis suggests that estradiol analogs have the potential as neuroprotectors and that the endogenous antioxidant ...

Worldwide, the role of the community pharmacist is changing from distribution of medicines towards being a patient-centered profession and putting the patient and not the medicine in the center. Ideally, pharmacists use ...

Non-living antigens are often poorly immunogenic and require addition of adjuvants to elicit protective immunity. Due to the immunostimulatory potential of Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands, they are explored as vaccine ...

Omega-3 fatty acids are used in both nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals in the form of triglycerides and ethyl esters. Administration forms available for omega-3 oil include bulk oil, soft gel capsules, emulsions and some ...

The burden of oral diseases has increased worldwide in the last decades, which indicates the need for implementation of treatments with increased efficacy. The development of bioadhesive formulations that provide sustained ...

New methods for radiochemical purification and preparation of a group of novel targeted radioactive cancer therapeutics have been developed and tested. Focus has been given to user-friendliness and minimization of the ...

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARα, PPARβ/δ and PPARγ) are nuclear receptors whose target genes have fundamental roles in human health and disease. The PPAR-regulated expression of these genes influences ...

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has increased worldwide during the last decades. Obesity and accumulation of lipids in skeletal muscles are strongly associated with T2D. Much focus has been on the possibility of ...

Use of medications, including psychotropics, is common during pregnancy. Indeed, many women might be in need of pharmacotherapy during pregnancy in order to ensure maternalfetal health. However, discordant findings or lack ...

Electromembrane extraction (EME) was described for the first time in 2006 and demonstrated electrokinetic migration of charged substances from an aqueous sample solution through a supported liquid membrane (SLM) and into ...

Electromembrane extraction (EME) was introduced in 2006 as a fast and selective microextraction technique that offered good recoveries for basic analytes. Since then, more than 90 publications have been presented on the ...

Individual differences in pharmacokinetics may cause extensive variability in drug efficacy, toxicity and adverse drug reactions, and represent a major concern in drug development. The overall aim of this thesis was to ...

The studies presented in this thesis aimed to investigate the regulation of the cysteine protease legumain in various human cells (paper I-IV), effects of statins (paper II and III) and a legumain-cleavable colchicine ...

Following solid organ transplantation individualizing the immunosuppressive therapy to obtain an optimal balance between therapeutic efficacy and the occurrence of adverse events is the ultimately goal. This is complicated ...

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the chemical and biochemical properties of the Malian medicinal plants Terminalia macroptera and Biophytum umbraculum, with main focus on its phenolic substances. This thesis is a ...

Nanoparticles are vastly studied drug delivery systems aiming at altering or improving the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of both low and high molecular weight drugs. Among the different materials used in the ...

The aim of this thesis was to investigate some of the potential health benefits of aronia berries with main focus on the phenolic substances. Extractions and fractionations of aronia berries were performed to obtain several ...

The main purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the potential of pectins from the Malian medicinal tree Cola cordifolia used in the treatment of gastric ulcer and wounds. This thesis is a small contribution to the ultimate ...

Liver transplantation is an established treatment in patients with end-stage liver disease. After solid organ transplantation immunosuppressive drugs are needed as rejection prophylaxis. The immunosuppressive regimen in ...

In recent years, marine natural products have gained attention from scientists within diverse research fields, such as biology, pharmacology, medicine and chemistry. Among those natural products, several polyunsaturated ...

For å styrke det analytiske beviset for påvisning av humant korionisk gonadotropin (hCG) i serum- og urinprøver, ble det utviklet en metode basert på immunoekstraksjon av hCG etterfulgt av spesifikk massespektrometrisk ...

Obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are associated with reduced metabolic flexibility and the development of these conditions are positively associated with dietary saturated fatty acids (e.g. palmitic acid) and negatively ...

In this thesis, emphasis is given to the study of temperature-responsive systems and their use in drug and gene delivery applications.<br><br> Studies on polymer-surfactant systems were conducted, using amino acid-based ...

Olanzapine is one of the most commonly used antipsychotic drugs in treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The interindividual variability in pharmacokinetics of olanzapine is extensive, with a 10-20-fold difference ...

The present work concerns the development of liposomal formulations that can adsorb to the human dental enamel. The overall aim of this pharmaceutical approach is to physically protect the teeth against detrimental processes, ...

In Paper I a method for sample preparation of urinary proteins was developed and optimized. The main steps were desalting/enrichment by cut-off centrifugation (5 kDa), albumin depletion and tryptic digestion followed by ...

Recently caspases have received much attention as potential drug targets in the treatment of cancer. Procaspase-3, the executioner of apoptosis, was found to be in elevated concentrations in cancer cells. Procaspase ...

Escitalopram and sertraline are among the most widely used drugs in the treatment of depression in Norway. Both drugs show substantial pharmacokinetic variability. Previous studies have indicated that the drug metabolising ...

The powerful and selective PPARδ agonist, GW 501516 (18), was used as a lead compound for new compounds with potential agonistic effects. The compounds were biologically evaluated using the oleic acid oxidation assay and ...

Through activation of adaptive mechanisms, members of the Bacillus cereus group are able to exploit a vairety of biological niches. In this work, microarray studies and other techniques were used to study some of these ...

Mobile genetic elements have had, and still have an impact on the evolution of the genomes providing means for adaptation and structural organization. These elements are one of the major driving forces for the general ...

This thesis describes the transformation of phenols into ortho-hydroxycinnamates, salicylamines, benzoxazines, and salicylnitriles in good overall yields by simple, regioselective, and one-pot procedures using a combination ...

Lack of specificity of anticancer drug treatments represents a major limitation for cancer cure. Thus, novel strategies are required to increase the selectivity of cancer therapeutics. Adverse effects can be reduced by ...

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian CNS. Excitotoxicity refers to the ability of glutamate to destroy neurons, and this pathological condition may occur e.g. during stroke. In this thesis, ...

This thesis presents the results of ethnopharmacological, phytochemical and biological activities investigations on Opilia celtidifolia (Guill. & Perr.) Endl. ex Walp (Opiliaceae), Cola cordifolia(Cav.) R. Br. (Sterculiaceae), ...