Editorial: Cancer Nanotheranostics: What Have We Learned So Far?

According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2015 an estimated of 1.7 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed only in the United States and around 600, 000 people will die from the disease. The most common type of cancer is breast cancer, with more than 234, 000 new cases expected in the United States in 2015. The next most common cancers are prostate cancer and lung cancer.After a quarter of century of rapid technological advances, research has revealed the complexity of cancer, a disease intimately related to the dynamic transformation of the genome. These transformations trigger a range of modification to cell processes and molecular events that initiate and promote tumor genesis and progression, then local invasion and metastasis, i.e., the hallmarks of cancer development. These alterations may cause a wide scope of “diseases” that share similar molecular patterns that cause transformation and malignancy. Each of this stepwise evolution of the initial molecular event drives abnormal growth and loss of differentiation that ultimately causes tissue and organ failure. The initial molecular event may lay within the erroneous expression of a given gene, epigenetic modification and/or sporadic mutations occurring on genomic DNA during the life span of organisms. Each and every one of these molecular events may be evaluated and used as diagnostics biomarker and therapeutic target. For example, therapy action may target a mutated gene and silence its expression so as to avoid erroneous protein expression that mutates cell function. However, the full understanding of the molecular onset of this disease is still far from achieved and the search for mechanisms of treatment will follow closely..

Vulvodynia: A disease commonly hidden in plain sight

Vulvodynia is a poorly recognized entity by clinicians – even by those who deal with female sexual health. While the study of vulvovaginal diseases, including pain disorders, is included in most residency programs in North America, it is acknowledged that clinical exposure may be insufficient. The scenario in the rest of the world is probably no better. Vulvodynia affects at least 6% of women (up to 20% in some series), and can be found at any age and in all ethnic groups. The disease is common and dramatically affects quality of life, beyond the obvious sexual aspect. The importance of investigating vulvar symptoms even in younger women is underlined by studies reporting that the prevalence of vulvodynia among adolescents is similar to that among adult women. The International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease (ISSVD) defined vulvodynia as vulvar pain of at least 3?months'' duration, without clear identifiable cause, which may have potential associated factors– or, more simply, idiopathic vulvar pain. It was subdivided according to location (generalized, localized) and the need of a stimulus to elicit the symptoms (provoked, spontaneous, or mixed). In the terminology recommended in 2015 it was acknowledged that there are potential associated factors..

Long-lived excited-state dynamics of i-motif structures probed by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy

UV-generated excited states of cytosine (C) nucleobases are precursors to mutagenic photoproduct formation. The i-motif formed from C-rich sequences is known to exhibit high yields of long-lived excited states following UV absorption. Here the excited states of several i-motif structures have been characterized following 267 nm laser excitation using time-resolved infrared spectroscopy (TRIR). All structures possess a long-lived excited state of ∼300 ps and notably in some cases decays greater than 1 ns are observed. These unusually long-lived lifetimes are attributed to the interdigitated DNA structure which prevents direct base stacking overlap

Phenotypic, cytogenetic and spike fertility characterization of a population of male-sterile triticale

Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is a good cereal for production of flour and feed. A segregating population of triticale was developed from a male-sterile (MS) plant. To determine whether this new source of male sterility in triticale is appropriate for use in breeding programs the expression of the male sterility phenotype was characterized through spike fertility, meiotic behavior, and pollen. Controlled crosses between male-sterile plants and control varieties male-fertile (MF) of triticale were also conducted, and cytological analyses were performed in the F2 and backcross plants. Plants with male-sterile phenotypes displayed reduced spike fertility when compared to plants with male-fertile phenotypes. Compared to male-fertile plants, male-sterile plants exhibited a lower percentage of normal meiotic cells, a reduced meiotic index and reduced pollen viability. The F2 plants had improved pollen fertility when compared to the male-sterile population; however there were no corresponding improvements in the percentage of normal meiotic cells or in the meiotic index. A single generation of backcrosses resulted in an improved meiotic index and increased pollen viability. However, no changes in the percentage of normal meiotic cells were observed. Meiotic instability, which was shown to be inheritable, was the likely cause of male sterility. Therefore, the use of this population in triticale breeding was considered to be inappropriate because it could promote or contribute to the maintenance of meiotic instability, which is commonly observed in this species

As múltiplas funções da agricultura familiar: um estudo no assentamento Monte Alegre, região de Araraquara (SP).

A partir da emergência da ideia de sustentabilidade, a agricultura adquiriu novas conotações, associadas não apenas ao aspecto produtivo, mas também à conservação dos recursos naturais e dos territórios rurais, em um reconhecimento de sua multifuncionalidade. Com base nesta noção, que valoriza as funções socioambientais desempenhadas pelas famílias rurais e pelas agriculturas praticadas, o presente artigo analisa um assentamento rural no estado de São Paulo, buscando identificar quais são e de que forma se expressam as funções para além da produção neste território particular. Por meio de uma metodologia de cunho quali-quantitativo, observou-se que, no assentamento em foco, a agricultura encerra em si questões de coesão territorial, manutenção da segurança alimentar, conservação da agrobiodiversidade e de fomento a outras atividades produtivas, sendo o elemento central da reconstrução de um modo de vida rural neste ambiente

Multiethnic meta-analysis identifies ancestry-specific and cross-ancestry loci for pulmonary function

Nearly 100 loci have been identified for pulmonary function, almost exclusively in studies of European ancestry populations. We extend previous research by meta-analyzing genome-wide association studies of 1000 Genomes imputed variants in relation to pulmonary function in a multiethnic population of 90,715 individuals of European (N = 60,552), African (N = 8429), Asian (N = 9959), and Hispanic/Latino (N = 11,775) ethnicities. We identify over 50 additional loci at genome-wide significance in ancestry-specific or multiethnic meta-analyses. Using recent fine-mapping methods incorporating functional annotation, gene expression, and differences in linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities, we further shed light on potential causal variants and genes at known and newly identified loci. Several of the novel genes encode proteins with predicted or established drug targets, including KCNK2 and CDK12. Our study highlights the utility of multiethnic and integrative genomics approaches to extend existing knowledge of the genetics of l