Category Archives: Uncategorized

Stockholm is lovely today. Great weather and great temperature. You can really feel that you get new energy. It is needed since we have suffered so many months in cold and darkness. Sweden is like that during some months, part of the charm. This is, according to me, the best time of the year. Already seen flowers, now waiting for the trees to get plenty of flowers. I don’t know why, but I just love flowers and nature. I suppose that is because I am grown up in the countryside.

I am very fortunate that I have the possibility to go to my parents out in the countryside. And since I have been a little upset it is nice to spend some time in the countryside. I have material for I don’t know how many books. I hope good inspiration and flow gets to me so I can start to write. Meanwhile, I write here. That is nice too.

This weekend, during Eastern, I read a little of what I have written previously. There is a lot about my experience in research. How life finds new ways to go forward. But, I have written previously that it is very important to “sometimes look back, to be able to look forward”. That concerns history a lot. You have to deal with history and the past. Otherwise it will catch up.

My main focus of this diary is “life, health and nature”. So I try to stay close to that theme.

Oh, I must tell you something. When I stayed at my parents house recently, I experienced real ghosts. Unvisble but you could feel the presence. That was the first time for me. I know other people talk about ghosts but I never experienced them myself. It was in my room. There is a special aura in my room. Has always been. When I asked my father if he knew anything about the ghosts, he told me that his now late brother has seen something pass over the floor. Undefinable. Also, another person has seen and experienced something. My I got scared at first, but then I felt that I could´t be afraid of the ghost. Scary, don’t you agree?

 

Lots of love,

Anna

 

 

 

 

…my walks never ends. Today has been so wonderful. About 18-20 degrees Celcius. It could have been a day in the middle of June.

This photo above is so beautiful, taken when I talked with one of our neighbours. Nice with just some smalltalk. Weather forcast predicts good weather all week. Hope they are right.

 

Je t’embrasse,

Anna

 

I found this beautiful feather today. I do not know from what bird, maybe somebody knows and can help me with with a good answer?

Actually, I havn´t had so much to write about, therefore, I havn´t written.  Sorry for that. Waiting for the moment of inspiration. However, I know that I have friends and family who would like an Easter greeting 😉

I know I have family in Texas now close to a Mexican ranch. It sounds hot! And I suppose also great food! I enjoy when other people have fun. Hope you forget “Jantelagen”.

So, what do I do? I enjoy watching Winter turning to a new season. Lovely to see all flowers, so to say, burst out. Please, see the following photo, and, remember, to have a wonderful weekend. Seize the day, an old sentence. Beautiful.

 

Je t’embrasse,

Anna

 

Hi there,

Long time, no see. What I wrote last time is very important. I will soon continue to write on theoretical pharmacology. This is new. I like that. New pharmaceutical drugs create new jobs.

I saw a program tonight about addictive drugs. My major take home message is that it is very important to underline that addictive drugs are very dangerous during the development of the brain. I may be wrong, but from what I remember, the brain is considered to be mature at an age of 25 years.

I cannot stop watching the photo above. One of my favorite moments in life. A simple walk in beautiful weather. It cannot get better. This is how I stimulate my brain reward systems.

Take care,

Anna

Theoretical pharmacology.

Since I do not have access to a laboratory, I continue with theoretical pharmacology. This is rather nice and convenient. But remember, these are hypothesis, so they are not accepted by the scientific society yet. It may take years.

I started my PhD studies in 1999 at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg. I was rapidly introduced to scientific meetings and understood that Professor Arvid Carlsson had come up with beautiful ideas. He has given a historical review lecture. Here, the concept auto receptor is explained. Please, see the following link:

youtu.be/j8QJQj2jEXQ 

I went to the scientific meeting and listened. This was actually only 2-3 weeks from when I started at the department. I was asked what my subject was and I explained that I was going to study the relation between acetylcholine and dopamine with regard to ethanol reward. Since this subject was new to me I listened to the meeting.

What I remember from that meeting was that Professor Arvid Carlsson was curios about the existence of functional nicotinic acetylcholine auto receptors. I guess he mentioned that since I mentioned acetylcholine.

My subject was to study the role of various nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits involved in accumbal ethanol induced dopamine stimulation. At a very early stage, I performed dose-response on nicotinic antagonists on locomotor activity in mice. These are very kind experiments. It is important to remember that many people are involved in performing experiments. I have explained previously that you need a lot to do research: lab, research grants, staff etc. That is why I today only can do theoretical research.

One of the nicotinic antagonists was di-hydro-beta-erythroidine. These experiments are explained in (Larsson et al, 2002). And this finding is mentioned as “dose-finding experiments with no effect per se”.

Surprisingly, a biphasic dose response curve was demonstrated. And, since it is an antagonist, it was surprising to find that it stimulated locomotor activity. Clearly, to my opinion, there are feedback mechanisms.

The results of these experiment are documented at the Department of Pharmacology at University of Gothenburg. But, of course, they must be repeated, and be put in a broader perspective. This is, to my opinion, a very difficult and challenging subject. The reason I write about it is that I have a gut feeling that it is important.

In research there are always so many question asked. And there are so many hypothesis raised. The challenge is to sort out what is important.

This experiment has been in my mind for several years.

I think it is about two years ago. I saw a curve in a magazine. In economics. Completely different from pharmacology. That curve reminded me of that experiment and I started to think about the study. And I also had in mind what Professor Arvid Carlsson had talked about.

What is important to sort out, is that I am talking about functional nicotinic auto receptors. This is very difficult to demonstrate.

Ok, that is all for tonight. And please try to understand that I put a lot brain energy to this. I actually get headache of thinking sometimes.

And it is good to have good reading glasses 😉

 

Take care,

Anna

 

 

 

 

 

This, I wrote on FB.

Finns påskens motsvarighet till julnöt?

Jag kan inte låta bli att ha någonting att klura på.

Mina kunskaper inom ekonomi är ytterst modesta. Men vad jag har uppfattat så finns det cykler inom ekonomi så väl så som inom biologi. Precis som biologin, med årstidernas växlingar, månens skiftningar etc, så finns det kanske liknande skiftningar även inom ekonomi. Åtminstone känner jag till inflation och deflation. Depression verkar ju finnas både inom ekonomi och biologi.

Jag brukar ibland i nyheterna se, utifrån en lekmans ögon, hur aktiemarknaden ibland ökar och ibland minskar. Av en slump råkade jag se en aktiekurva som väldigt mycket liknade resultatet av ett experiment jag erhöll under studietiden. Den studien skulle kunna ha tolkats som ett funktionellt stöd för nicotinerga autoreceptorer.

Inom farmakologi så finns begreppet autoreceptor.
En receptor kan beskrivas som ett lås där rätt nyckel (en molekyl) kan öppna upp för en förändring i kroppen som resulterar i en anpassning till yttre och inre miljö. Det verksamma ämnet i ett läkemedel binder till en receptor.

För att finjustera förändringen finns t ex autoreceptorer som hjälper till att reglera aktiviteten. Allt strävar efter jämvikt lärde jag mig någon gång. Det här är ett väldigt komplext samspel som jag känner stor ödmjukhet inför.

Någonting jag har lärt mig under åren är att ju mer man läser, ju mer förstår man att man inte förstår.

Min påsknöt är:
går det att definiera autoreceptorer inom ekonomi?

Inser att det i så fall torde vara komplext eftersom jag känner till att det finns micro- och makroekonomi.
Finns de då som naturliga krafter och/eller sker finjustering via olika ekonomiska åtgärder?

???

This is a challenge. Trying to describe the brain reward systems. I have always been  fascinated by the brain function. It started with an extra course in neurobiology in Uppsala.

There is little teaching about the brain reward systems when it comes to today’s drug policy in society and politics. Hence, this an attemt to description.

First, I would humbly like to point out that this topic is very complex, and that there is currently a strong understanding of brain function, but, however, a lot of knowledge is still missing. The big challenge is to realize that brains are different, and thus, it can be difficult to understand how different people think, feel and so on. Furthermore, understanding brain function will increase eg why and how different people act in the micro- and macro world.

Professor Jörgen Engel was my supervisor in neurobiological research, and he has dedicated his life to study how alcohol affects the brain reward systems. Both acute and also longterm effects. Since ethanol is such a small molecule with both hydrophilic and lipophilic properties, it can affect the brain in so many ways with following complex pharmacology.

Brain reward systems (pluralis!) are extremely important for a species survival. They help to stimulate/reinforce different behaviors such as a feeling of pleasure when eating, drinking, reproduction etc. Thus, fundamental behaviors that are important for survival. So-called positive reinforcement.

What is then brain reward systems? From what I know today, they consist primarily of dopamine neurons that are located in distinct pathways in the brain. It has been noticed in repeated studies that addictive substances have in common to increase the amount of dopamine at the same time with a sense of pleasure. There are of course many other neurotransmitter systems involved in reward.

Addictive drugs (part of a plant) such as amphetamine, cocaine, alcohol and nicotine etc stimulate brain reward systems. If they are aused over a broader time period addiction can occur. In addiction, there are no positive effect of the drug, but rather, the drug is taken to remove the negative effects. For example tolerance and withdrawal symptoms occur. Tolerance is when a higher dose of the drug is used to achive the same effect as in the beginning.

Today, doctors are assisted with a diagnostic system (DSM) which helps them to determine if there is abuse or addiction . There are good pharmaceutical drugs to be used in alliviation and in different assisting programs. It is important to remember that social support in addiction is very important in assisting programs. Unfortunately, more research is needed to develop more effective drugs.

It has also been shown that anabolic steroids, during prolonged use, affects the brain in a very negative and complex way.  Anabolic steroids, are in my opinion, very dangerous. They can influence behavior so that eg aggressiveness  is displayed. The addict may also experience being the world’s best .

An important aspect is that drugs can affect fetal development so that abnormalities can occur. Drugs should definetly be avoided during pregnancies.

I promised to write prevously on this very important subject. This is written in a simle way, but I hope it increases, at least a little, the understanding of brain reward systems.