Epigenetic Modulators as Treatment Alternative to Diverse Types of Cancer

DNA is packaged in rolls in an octamer of histones forming a complex of DNA and proteins called chromatin. Chromatin as a structural matrix of a chromosome and its modifications are nowadays considered relevant aspects for regulating gene expression, which has become of high interest in understanding genetic mechanisms regulating various diseases, including cancer. In various types of cancer, the main modifications are found to be DNA methylation in the CpG dinucleotide as a silencing mechanism in transcription, post-translational histone modifications such as acetylation, methylation and others that affect the chromatin structure, the ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling and miRNA-mediated gene silencing. In this review we analyze the main alterations in gene expression, the epigenetic modification patterns that cancer cells present, as well as the main modulators and inhibitors of each epigenetic mechanism and the molecular evolution of the most representative inhibitors, which have opened a promising future in the study of HAT, HDAC, non-glycoside DNMT inhibitors and domain inhibitors.

Bioactive Edible Films and Coatings Based in Gums and Starch: Phenolic Enrichment and Foods Application

Edible films and coatings allow preserving fresh and processed food, maintaining quality, preventing microbial contamination and/or oxidation reactions and increasing the shelf life of food products. The structural matrix of edible films and coatings is mainly constituted by proteins, lipids or polysaccharides. However, it is possible to increase the bioactive potential of these polymeric matrices by adding phenolic compounds obtained from plant extracts. Phenolic compounds are known to possess several biological properties such as antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Incorporating phenolic compounds enriched plant extracts in edible films and coatings contribute to preventing food spoilage/deterioration and the extension of shelf life. This review is focused on edible films and coatings based on gums and starch. Special attention is given to bioactive edible films and coatings incorporating plant extracts enriched in phenolic compounds.

Elastin-Derived Peptides in the Central Nervous System: Friend or Foe

Elastin is one of the main structural matrix proteins of the arteries, lung, cartilage, elastic ligaments, brain vessels, and skin. These elastin fibers display incredible resilience and structural stability with long half-life. However, during some physiological and pathophysiological conditions, elastin is prone to proteolytic degradation and, due to the extremely low turnover rate, its degradation is practically an irreversible and irreparable phenomenon. As a result of elastin degradation, new peptides called elastin-derived peptides (EDPs) are formed. A growing body of evidence suggests that these peptides play an important role in the development of age-related vascular disease. They are also detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of healthy people, and their amount increases in patients after ischemic stroke. Recently, elastin-like polypeptides have been reported to induce overproduction of beta-amyloid in a model of Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, the role and mechanism of action of EDPs in the nervous system is largely unknown and limited to only a few studies. The article summarizes the current state of knowledge on the role of EDPs in the nervous system.

The ‘White’ Problem

In this chapter, Charles Mills looks at the historic framing of race as “the Negro problem” and its implications for the development of American sociology in particular. As black radical theorists of the socio-political order have always insisted: to the extent that there is a Negro problem, it has to be contextualized within the larger structural matrix of the white problem. But the failure to recognize white oppression as the environing and shaping causal background has necessarily misoriented inquiry from the start. Drawing on two prizewinning sociological texts, Stephen Steinberg’s Turning Back: The Retreat from Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy (1995) and Aldon Morris’s The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology (2015), Mills argues that “epistemic injustice” as a concept has to be expanded to include possible foundational distortions in the structure of the disciplines themselves.

Some Applications of Matrix Theory in Economics

The paper provides some applications of matrix theory in economics. In particular, when the industry is connected by production and consumption of different products, the number of planned gross product of industries, inter-industry delivery of products, and net products of industries is calculated. The task of finding the budgets of states, with the specified structural matrix of trade of these states and the sum of their budgets, is also being considered. In addition, the application of the concept of eigenvector and eigenvalue to find the ratio of state budgets to balance the trade of participating states is considered.

Should bone be considered fascia: Proposal for a change in taxonomy of bone- a clinical anatomist’s view

Fascia is the accepted term to describe integrated three-dimensional connective tissues that have failed to be described in a manner agreed by recognised anatomical authorities. It is proposed that the ambiguity concerning the seeming indefinability and lack of agreement is predominantly conceptual and partially technical. A call for the deconstruction of the word and a proposal for a change in taxonomy to include bone is proposed. Should bone can be viewed as a specialty of fascia it would make redundant descriptive terms “attaches”, “origin” and “insertion”. An agreed change in the definition to include bone would provide a fecund area of research. This paper proposes fascia as the original building material (mesenchyme) of embryology and therefore the true structural matrix that facilitates cellular specialty, including bone. It is proposed that it would be beneficial, to the widest disparate groups of researchers in human sciences, to include bone as fascia based on the supposition of specialty along a spectrum. Attention to structural aspects of fascia has resulted in insufficient attention being paid to the important unified tensegrity based three-dimensional functionality and morphological states. A spectrum is used to classify something in terms of its position on a scale between two extreme points. Concerning fascia, the two points of opposition are hardness to softness along a continuum of specialisation emerging as arachnoid, blood, mucus, bone and other. It seems instructive to suggest that the issue concerning the seeming indefinability and lack of agreement is predominantly conceptual and partially technical.