Genome Editing for CNS Disorders.

Central nervous system (CNS) disorders have a social and economic burden on modern societies, and the development of effective therapies is urgently required. Gene editing may prevent or cure a disease by inducing genetic changes at endogenous loci. Genome editing includes not only the insertion, deletion or replacement of nucleotides, but also the modulation of gene expression and epigenetic editing. Emerging technologies based on ZFs, TALEs, and CRISPR/Cas systems have extended the boundaries of genome manipulation and promoted genome editing approaches to the level of promising strategies for counteracting genetic diseases. The parallel development of efficient delivery systems has also increased our access to the CNS. In this review, we describe the various tools available for genome editing and summarize in vivo preclinical studies of CNS genome editing, whilst considering current limitations and alternative approaches to overcome some bottlenecks

First detection of CF+ towards a high-mass protostar

We report the first detection of the J = 1 - 0 (102.6 GHz) rotational lines of CF+ (fluoromethylidynium ion) towards CygX-N63, a young and massive protostar of the Cygnus X region. This detection occurred as part of an unbiased spectral survey of this object in the 0.8-3 mm range, performed with the IRAM 30m telescope. The data were analyzed using a local thermodynamical equilibrium model (LTE model) and a population diagram in order to derive the column density. The line velocity (-4 km s-1) and line width (1.6 km s-1) indicate an origin from the collapsing envelope of the protostar. We obtain a CF+ column density of 4.10e11 cm-2. The CF+ ion is thought to be a good tracer for C+ and assuming a ratio of 10e-6 for CF+/C+, we derive a total number of C+ of 1.2x10e53 within the beam. There is no evidence of carbon ionization caused by an exterior source of UV photons suggesting that the protostar itself is the source of ionization. Ionization from the protostellar photosphere is not efficient enough. In contrast, X-ray ionization from the accretion shock(s) and UV ionization from outflow shocks could provide a large enough ionizing power to explain our CF+ detection. Surprisingly, CF+ has been detected towards a cold, massive protostar with no sign of an external photon dissociation region (PDR), which means that the only possibility is the existence of a significant inner source of C+. This is an important result that opens interesting perspectives to study the early development of ionized regions and to approach the issue of the evolution of the inner regions of collapsing envelopes of massive protostars. The existence of high energy radiations early in the evolution of massive protostars also has important implications for chemical evolution of dense collapsing gas and could trigger peculiar chemistry and early formation of a hot core.Comment: 6 page

A unification in the theory of linearization of second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations

In this letter, we introduce a new generalized linearizing transformation (GLT) for second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations (SNODEs). The well known invertible point (IPT) and non-point transformations (NPT) can be derived as sub-cases of the GLT. A wider class of nonlinear ODEs that cannot be linearized through NPT and IPT can be linearized by this GLT. We also illustrate how to construct GLTs and to identify the form of the linearizable equations and propose a procedure to derive the general solution from this GLT for the SNODEs. We demonstrate the theory with two examples which are of contemporary interest.Comment: 8 page

Seletividade de herbicidas sobre Anadenanthera peregrina (Angico-Vermelho).

O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar a seletividade de herbicidas utilizados em áreas de Eucalyptus, sobre o crescimento de Anadenanthera peregrina. O trabalho foi conduzido em casa de vegetação em duas épocas diferentes em 2003 e 2004, tendo 5 tratamentos com 4 doses de herbicidas em cada um e 6 repetições. Os tratamentos foram: haloxyfop-methyl nas doses (0,00 ; 120, 240 e 480 g.ha-1); sulfentrazone (0,00, 300, 600 e 1.200 g.ha-1); isoxaflutole (0,00, 150, 300 e 600 g.ha-1); oxyfluorfen (0,00, 720, 1.440 e 2.880 g.ha-1); e glyfhosate (0,00, 720, 1.440 e 2.880 g.ha-1). Em ambos os experimentos foram avaliados: efeitos fitotóxicos do produto, número de folíolos, altura de plantas, diâmetro de caule e biomassa seca da parte aérea; e no segundo foram feitas ainda a análise de clorofila a e b, e de carotenóides. O herbicida que apresentou maior fitoxicidade e que comprometeu o desenvolvimento do angico foi o glyphosate, com altos graus de fitotoxicidade, queda de folhas e redução da biomassa, sendo, portanto, não recomendado para o controle de invasoras em áreas de plantio de angico. Os outros herbicidas não comprometeram o desenvolvimento do angico, podendo ser usados no plantio de A. peregrina