Hands in people with diabetes more often affected by trigger finger

Mattias Rydberg, doctoral student at Lund University and resident physician at Skåne University Hospital
Source: Lund University

Locked fingers, known as trigger finger, are more common among people with diabetes than in the general population. A study led by Lund University in Sweden shows that the risk of being affected increases in the case of high blood sugar. The study has been published in Diabetes Care.

Trigger finger means that one or more fingers, often the ring finger or thumb, ends up in a bent position that is difficult to straighten out. It is due to the thickening of tendons, which bend the finger, and their connective tissue sheath, which means that the finger becomes fixed in a bent position towards the palm. It is a painful condition that can often be treated with cortisone injections, but sometimes requires surgery.

“At the hand surgery clinic, we have noted for a long time that people with diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, are more often affected by trigger finger. Over 20 percent of those who require surgery for this condition are patients who have, or will develop, diabetes,” says Mattias Rydberg, doctoral student at Lund University, resident physician at Skåne University Hospital and first author of the study.

To study whether high blood sugar (blood sugar dysregulation) increases the risk of trigger finger, the researchers examined two registers: Region Skåne’s healthcare database, which includes all diagnoses, and the Swedish national diabetes register. Between 1 and 1.5 per cent of the population are affected by trigger finger, but the diagnosis arises among 10-15 per cent of those who have diabetes, and the phenomenon appears most in the group with type 1 diabetes.

The brain's immune cells can be triggered to slow down Alzheimer's disease

Joana B. Pereira, researcher at Lund University and Karolinska Institutet who is first author of the study.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lund University

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Microglia and TREM2 in Alzheimer's Disease

The Core Concept: Microglia are the primary immune cells of the central nervous system that, when activated in a specific manner, trigger protective inflammatory mechanisms to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Contrary to the traditional view that brain inflammation is strictly harmful, the activation of the TREM2 receptor on microglial cells enables them to sense disintegrating cell debris and consume harmful tau proteins, thereby reducing toxic accumulation.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Microglial Cells: The resident macrophages of the central nervous system responsible for clearing viruses, infectious agents, and damaged cells.
• TREM2 Protein: A surface receptor on microglia that triggers a protective immune response when activated, though specific mutations in this protein can increase disease risk.
• Tau Pathology: Thread-like protein structures whose accumulation in brain cells is a major hallmark of Alzheimer's disease; this accumulation is mitigated by microglial consumption.
• Protective Inflammation: A recontextualization of neurological inflammation as a potentially beneficial immune response when driven by specific receptor activation.

Altered cell behavior behind resistance in neuroblastoma

Credit: National Cancer Institute

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Neuroblastoma Chemotherapy Resistance

The Core Concept: Neuroblastoma tumors develop resistance to chemotherapy by altering their cellular behavior to mimic resilient, immature embryonic cells rather than relying on new genetic mutations.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike resistance driven purely by genetic alteration, this mechanism utilizes phenotypic plasticity; the cancer cells rapidly adapt to environmental stress by reverting to a fetal development state that is naturally less responsive to conventional drugs targeting rapidly dividing cells.

Origin/History: Identified by researchers Adriana Mañas and Daniel Bexell at Lund University, and published in Science Advances, the discovery was made possible by developing a novel in vivo mouse model containing human neuroblastoma tumor cells.

Lund University: SFL Spotlight

The establishment of Lund University serves as a definitive historical model of academic infrastructure utilized for geopolitical consolidation. Originally rooted in an ecclesiastical framework, a Franciscan studium generale was established adjacent to the Lund Cathedral in 1425, rendering it the earliest institution of higher education in Scandinavia. This medieval academy dissolved following the Lutheran Reformation of 1536, leaving the region without a formal center for advanced education for over one hundred years.

The modern iteration of the institution was engineered following the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde, which transferred sovereignty of the Scanian lands from the Danish to the Swedish Crown. Bishop Peder Winstrup proposed the foundation of a university to systematically integrate the Scanian population into the Swedish cultural and political hegemony. Despite initial resistance from the Swedish estates, the charter for Lund University was formalized on December 19, 1666. Operating initially through four foundational faculties—theology, law, medicine, and philosophy—the university later acquired the King's House in 1688 to serve as its primary administrative center.

Urban birds prefer native trees

Urban great tits prefer native trees for breeding
Photo Credit: Sandra Alekseeva

Small passerine birds, such as blue and great tits, avoid breeding in urban areas where there are many non-native trees. Chicks also weigh less the more non-native trees there are in the vicinity of the nest. This is shown in a long-term study from Lund University in Sweden.

City trees contribute to several important ecosystem services such as lowering local temperature and purifying air but are also homes to birds and insects. Vegetation, especially trees, is the primary managed biological component of a city’s ecosystem. It is therefore important to understand the consequences of our planning of parks and green spaces. To find out how different types of trees affect birdlife, a research team, led by Lund University, monitored 400 nest boxes in five parks in the Swedish city Malmö over a seven-year period.

The results, now published in the scientific journal, Oecologia, show that native trees – defined in the study as species that have been in the ecosystem for at least 700 years – provide more resources and are preferred by urban birds.

Alzheimer's disease can be diagnosed before symptoms emerge

Oskar Hansson, Professor of Neurology Lund University 
Photo Credit: Kennet Ruona

A large study led by Lund University in Sweden has shown that people with Alzheimer's disease can now be identified before they experience any symptoms. It is now also possible to predict who will deteriorate within the next few years. The study is published in Nature Medicine, and is very timely in light of the recent development of new drugs for Alzheimer's disease.

It has long been known that there are two proteins linked to Alzheimer’s – beta-amyloid, which forms plaques in the brain, and tau, which at a later stage accumulates inside brain cells. Elevated levels of these proteins in combination with cognitive impairment have previously formed the basis for diagnosing Alzheimer's.

“Changes occur in the brain between ten and twenty years before the patient experiences any clear symptoms, and it is only when tau begins to spread that the nerve cells die and the person in question experiences the first cognitive problems. This is why Alzheimer's is so difficult to diagnose in its early stages”, explains Oskar Hansson, senior physician in neurology at Skåne University Hospital and professor at Lund University.

He has now led a large international research study that was carried out with 1,325 participants from Sweden, the US, the Netherlands and Australia. The participants did not have any cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study. By using PET scans, the presence of tau and amyloid in the participants' brains could be visualized. The people in whom the two proteins were discovered were found to be at a 20-40 times higher risk of developing the disease at follow-up a few years later, compared to the participants who had no biological changes.

New treatment could result in more donor lungs

Sandra Lindstedt, Snejana Hyllén, and Leif Pierre
Credit: Lund University

A large number of lungs donated cannot be used for transplantation. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Skåne University Hospital have conducted an animal study bringing hope that more donor lungs could be used in the future. Researchers have launched a pilot study to investigate whether the treatment will have the same positive effects on human beings.

About 190 organs are donated in Sweden every year. Due to injuries to the lungs, only about 30 percent of them can be used for transplantation. Adding to that, the mortality rate is high: about half of the patients pass away within five years of transplant.

” The results from our study indicate that a certain treatment can help us use a larger part of a donor lung, and that there is an improved outcome during the first two days after surgery”, says Sandra Lindstedt, senior consultant in thoracic surgery at Skåne University Hospital and adjunct professor at Lund University.

In their study on pigs, the researchers investigated the effects of reducing the levels of cytokines in lungs. Cytokines are small proteins that are produced by specific cells of the immune system.

First patient receives milestone stem cell-based transplant for Parkinson’s Disease

On 13th of February, a transplant of stem cell-derived nerve cells was administered to a person with Parkinson’s at Skåne University Hospital, Sweden. The product has been developed by Lund University and it is now being tested in patients for the first time. The transplantation product is generated from embryonic stem cells and functions to replace the dopamine nerve cells which are lost in the parkinsonian brain. This patient was the first of eight with Parkinson’s disease who will receive the transplant.

“This is an important milestone on the road towards a cell therapy that can be used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease. The transplantation has been completed as planned, and the correct location of the cell implant has been confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. Any potential effects of the STEM PD-product may take several years. The patient has been discharged from the hospital and evaluations will be conducted according to the study protocol,” says Gesine Paul-Visse, principal investigator for the STEM-PD clinical trial, consultant neurologist at Skåne University Hospital and adjunct professor at Lund University in Sweden.

There are around eight million people living with Parkinson’s disease globally; a disease which involves loss of dopamine nerve cells deep in the brain, leading to problems in controlling movement. The standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease is medications that replace the lost dopamine, but over time these medications often become less effective and cause side effects. As of today, there are no treatments that can repair the damaged structures within the brain or that can replace the nerve cells that are lost.

New discoveries about where atherosclerotic plaques rupture can lead to preventive treatments

Isabel Goncalves, Jiangming Sun, and Andreas Edsfeldt studying two atherosclerotic plaques
Photo Credit: Petra Olsson

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Atherosclerotic Plaque Rupture and the MMP-9 Marker

The Core Concept: Researchers have successfully mapped the precise location of atherosclerotic plaque ruptures in the carotid arteries and identified the enzyme MMP-9 as a key predictive biomarker for cardiovascular complications.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: While previous research primarily focused on plaque formation, this study utilized electron microscopy and RNA sequencing to pinpoint that plaques typically rupture at their proximal end (the location closest to the heart) and established a strong association between this specific rupture zone and elevated MMP-9 activity.

Origin/History: Led by researchers at Lund University and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the study analyzed carotid artery plaques from 188 individuals, specifically integrating bioinformatics and clinical cardiology.

“Recipe book” for reprogramming immune cells

Filipe Pereira, professor of molecular medicine at Lund University
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lund University

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Researchers at Lund University established a high-throughput screening platform and a library of over 400 immune-related transcription factors to decode the specific "recipes" required to reprogram accessible somatic cells into distinct immune cell identities.
• Methodology: The study utilized unique DNA barcodes attached to each transcription factor, allowing the simultaneous tracking of thousands of combinatorial possibilities to determine which specific factor groups drive conversion to desired immune lineages.
• Key Data: This four-year project successfully identified reprogramming protocols for six different immune cell types, including Natural Killer (NK) cells, which were previously impossible to generate through direct reprogramming.
• Context: Prior to this breakthrough, the specific reprogramming factors had been mapped for only four of the human body's more than 70 distinct immune cell types, limiting the development of synthetic immunotherapies.
• Significance: The platform enables the production of rare, patient-specific immune cells from abundant sources like skin fibroblasts, potentially expanding immunotherapy applications from cancer treatment to autoimmune diseases and regenerative medicine.

Wild flatworms heal wounds

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Wild Flatworm Regenerative Therapeutics

The Core Concept: Exosomes containing signaling molecules derived from wild Scandinavian flatworms can significantly accelerate tissue repair and wound healing in human skin models.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike conventional wound treatments that rely solely on the human body's intrinsic repair mechanisms, this approach harnesses cross-species regenerative signaling. Flatworms—capable of regenerating entire bodies from minute fragments—utilize microscopic messenger packets known as exosomes to transmit molecules that influence cellular growth and gene expression. When these flatworm exosomes are applied to human tissue, they actively stimulate biological regeneration, leading to dermal thickening and the accelerated repair of both mechanical wounds and burn-damaged blood vessels.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Exosome Extraction: The process of isolating virus-sized intercellular messenger vesicles from wild-caught Scandinavian flatworms following mechanical division.
• In Vitro Efficacy Testing: The application of invertebrate signaling molecules to standardized human skin models to empirically observe and measure accelerated wound closure and cellular changes.
• Cross-Species Regenerative Signaling: The foundational proof-of-concept that regenerative biological material from a highly resilient invertebrate can successfully interact with and enhance mammalian tissue repair.

Machine learning drives drug repurposing for neuroblastoma

Daniel Bexell leads the research group in molecular pediatric oncology, and Katarzyna Radke, first author of the study.
Photo Credit: Lund University

Using machine learning and a large volume of data on genes and existing drugs, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified a combination of statins and phenothiazines that is particularly promising in the treatment of the aggressive form of neuroblastoma. The results from experimental trials showed slowing of tumor growth and higher survival rates. 

The childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, affects around 15-20 children in Sweden every year. Most of them fell ill before the age of five. Neuroblastoma is characterized by, among other things, tumors that are often resistant to drug treatment, including chemotherapy. The disease exists in both mild and severe forms, and the Lund University researchers are mainly studying the aggressive form, high-risk neuroblastoma. This variant is the form of childhood cancer with the lowest survival rate. 

New mechanism revealed: How leukemia cells trick the immune system

Thoas Fioretos, Niklas Landberg, and Carl Sandén are the research team behind the study now being published in Nature Cancer.
Photo Credit: Tove Smeds

A research team at Lund University in Sweden has discovered a mechanism that helps acute myeloid leukemia cells to evade the body’s immune system. By developing an antibody that blocks the mechanism, the researchers could restore the immune system’s ability to kill the cancer cells in laboratory trials and in mice. The discovery is published in Nature Cancer.

Immunotherapy has improved the treatment for many cancers, but progress has been limited in leukemia. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is particularly intractable, with a five-year survival rate of just over 30 per cent. The existing treatments are often aggressive and may include both strong chemotherapy and stem cell transplantations.

“We wanted to see if we could find surface proteins unique to leukemia stem cells, and which would therefore act as interesting targets for a targeted treatment. If such proteins were not present on healthy blood stem cells it might be possible to attack the tumor – without harming the healthy blood system,” says Thoas Fioretos, research group leader and professor of clinical genetics at Lund University, and senior consultant at Skåne University Hospital.

Aggressive brain tumors build protective “sugar shield” to survive extreme stress

Mattias Belting and Anna Bång Rudenstam.
Photo Credit: Tove Smeds

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary

• Main Discovery: Aggressive brain tumors, specifically glioblastoma and central nervous system metastases, construct a protective surface layer rich in chondroitin sulfate to shield themselves from toxic lipids and prevent ferroptosis (a form of cell death caused by lipid oxidation).
• Methodology: Researchers analyzed tumor cells isolated directly from patient surgeries and utilized 3D organoid models to replicate the tumor environment; they then experimentally disrupted the formation of the sugar shield while simultaneously blocking the cells' ability to store lipids in droplets.
• Key Data: The study identified two cooperative defense mechanisms: the external chondroitin sulfate sugar shield (acting as a filter) and internal lipid droplets (acting as storage buffers); simultaneously disabling both defenses caused rapid tumor cell collapse and death via ferroptosis.
• Significance: This finding reveals a previously unrecognized metabolic survival strategy that allows cancer cells to adapt to the brain's hostile environment (characterized by oxidative stress and low pH), fundamentally changing the understanding of brain tumor resilience.
• Future Application: The discovery points toward a novel therapeutic strategy that combines agents to strip the sugar shield with inhibitors of lipid storage, potentially sensitizing aggressive tumors to ferroptosis-inducing treatments.
• Branch of Science: Oncology and Cell Biology
• Additional Detail: The same protective sugar shield mechanism was observed in brain metastases originating from malignant melanoma, lung cancer, and kidney cancer, suggesting a common adaptive trait for tumors invading the central nervous system.

New type of solar cell is being tested in space

Magnus Borgström Professor, Solid State Physics Lund University
Photo Credit: Lund University

Physics researchers at Lund University in Sweden recently succeeded in constructing small solar radiation-collecting antennas – nanowires – using three different materials that are a better match for the solar spectrum compared with today’s silicon solar cells. As the nanowires are light and require little material per unit of area, they are now to be installed for tests on satellites, which are powered by solar cells and where efficiency, in combination with low weight, is the most important factor. The new solar cells were sent into space a few days ago.

A group of nanoengineering researchers at Lund University working on solar cells made a breakthrough last year when they succeeded in building photovoltaic nanowires with three different band gaps. This, in other words, means that one and the same nanowire consists of three different materials that react to different parts of solar light. The results have been published in Materials Today Energy and subsequently in more detail in Nano Research.

“The big challenge was to get the current to transfer between the materials. It took more than ten years, but it worked in the end,” says Magnus Borgström, professor of solid-state physics, who wrote the articles with the then doctoral student Lukas Hrachowina.

A new bioinfomatics pipeline solves a 50-year-old blood group puzzle

Photo Credit: Belova59

Currently, a lot is known about which genes are responsible for our individual blood groups, however not much is understood about how and why the levels of the blood group molecules differ between one person to another. This can be important for blood transfusion safety. Now a research group at Lund University in Sweden has developed a toolbox that finds the answer – and in doing so, has solved a 50-year-old mystery.

The study was published recently in Nature Communications.

For the past 30 years, the research group in Lund has studied the genetic basis of our many blood groups and their research has laid the foundation for six new blood group systems. On the surface of the red blood cell are found proteins and carbohydrates that are very similar between people.

However, small differences in these molecules have been shown to be due to genetic variants that encode what we know as blood group antigens. What has not been understood until now is why people with the same blood group can have different amounts of a certain blood group antigen on their red blood cells.

Size of insects are shaped by temperature and predators

Many bird species in the tropics catch and eat damselflies and dragonflies. Here is a Rufous-tailed Jacamar that has caught a large dragonfly in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil
Photo Credit: Erik Svensson

The size of dragonflies and damselflies varies around the globe. These insects are generally larger in temperate areas than in the tropics. According to a new study from Lund University in Sweden, this is caused by a combination of temperatures and the prevalence of predators.

In a large global comparative study of this ancient order of insects, researchers have studied how body size varies geographically and between different species. They compared the size of these insects in the hot tropics with the cooler, temperate regions to quantify geographical variation and understand its causes. This was done by analyzing size data and fossil data for various species of dragonflies and damselflies (two suborders of the order Odonata).

“Two hundred million years ago, these insects were larger in the tropics than in temperate climates. That trend has since reversed, however, and the opposite is now true, with larger species generally found at our northerly latitudes. We believe that this is partly caused by the evolutionary appearance of birds” says Erik Svensson, biologist at Lund University.

Completely recycled viscose for the first time

Edvin Bågenholm-Ruuth
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lund University

At present, viscose textiles are made of biomass from the forest, and there is no such thing as fully recycled viscose. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now succeeded in making new viscose – from worn-out cotton sheets.

Old textiles around the world end up at the rubbish tip and are often burned. In Sweden, they are generally burned to produce district heating. Extensive development work is being conducted to give old clothes and textiles a worthier ending. 

The planet really needs recycled textiles, as it takes a lot of energy, water and land to cultivate cotton and other plant sources for textiles. 

However, there are many challenges.

“Cellulose chains, the main component in plant fibers, are complex and long. Cotton textiles are also intensively treated with dyes, protective agents and other chemicals. And then there is all the ingrained grime in the form of skin flakes and fats,” says Edvin Bågenholm-Ruuth, doctoral student in chemical engineering at Lund University. 

Temperature increase triggers viral infection

Illustration of phage virus injecting its DNA into a cell
Illustration Credit: Alex Evilevitch and Ting Liu

Researchers at Lund University, together with colleagues at the NIST Synchrotron Facility in the USA, have mapped on an atomic level what happens in a virus particle when the temperature is raised.

"When the temperature rises, the virus's genetic material changes its form and density, becoming more fluid-like, which leads to its rapid injection into the cell," says Alex Evilevitch who led the study.

Viruses lack their own metabolism and the ability to replicate independently; they are entirely dependent on a host cell to multiply. Instead, the virus hijacks the internal machinery of the infected cell to produce new virus particles, which are then released and spread to infect other cells.

In most cases, the virus's genetic material, DNA, is enclosed within a protective protein shell called a capsid. A research group at Lund University is working to understand the process by which the virus ejects its genetic material from the capsid and into cells and what causes the virus's DNA to be released.

It all began with a study published in 2014, where the Lund University researchers observed that there seems to be a sudden change in the virus's genetic material when exposed to the infection temperature, around 37 degrees.

Revealed: Molecular “superpower” of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Scanning electron micrograph of en:Clostridioides difficile bacteria from a stool sample
Photo Credit: Public Health Image Library

A species of ordinary gut bacteria that we all carry flourishes when the intestinal flora is knocked out by a course of antibiotics. Since the bacteria is naturally resistant to many antibiotics, it causes problems, particularly in healthcare settings. A study led from Lund University in Sweden now shows how two molecular mechanisms can work together make the bacterium extra resistant. “Using this knowledge, we hope to be able to design even better medicines,” says Vasili Hauryliuk, senior lecturer at Lund University, who led the study.

The threat from antibiotic resistant bacteria is as well-known as it is grave. Last year, The Lancet reported that an estimated 1.27 million people died in 2019 as a result of bacterial infection that could not be treated with existing medicines. To tackle this threat is it is essential to understand the underpinning molecular mechanisms.