Screening and Functional Analysis of Hub MicroRNAs Related to Tumor Development in Colon Cancer

Epigenetic regulation and therapeutic strategies in ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease, and is characterized by the diffuse inflammation and ulceration in the colon and rectum mucosa, even extending to the caecum. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylations, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs, are implicated in the differentiation, maturation, and functional modulation of multiple immune and non-immune cell types, and are influenced and altered in various chronic inflammatory diseases, including UC. Here we review the relevant studies revealing the differential epigenetic features in UC, and summarize the current knowledge about the immunopathogenesis of UC through epigenetic regulation and inflammatory signaling networks, regarding DNA methylation, histone modification, miRNAs and lncRNAs. We also discuss the epigenetic-associated therapeutic strategies for the alleviation and treatment of UC, which will provide insights to intervene in the immunopathological process of UC in view of epigenetic regulation.

Downregulation of miR-182-5p by NFIB promotes NAD+ salvage synthesis in colorectal cancer by targeting NAMPT

Nuclear factor I B (NFIB) plays an important role in tumors. Our previous study found that NFIB can promote colorectal cancer (CRC) cell proliferation in acidic environments. However, its biological functions and the underlying mechanism in CRC are incompletely understood. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) effectively affects cancer cell proliferation. Nevertheless, the regulatory mechanism of NAD+ synthesis in cancer remains to be elucidated. Here we show NFIB promotes CRC proliferation in vitro and growth in vivo, and down-regulation of NFIB can reduce the level of NAD+. In addition, supplementation of NAD+ precursor NMN can recapture cell proliferation in CRC cells with NFIB knockdown. Mechanistically, we identified that NFIB promotes CRC cell proliferation by inhibiting miRNA-182-5p targeting and binding to NAMPT, the NAD+ salvage synthetic rate-limiting enzyme. Our results delineate a combination of high expression of NFIB and NAMPT predicted a clinical poorest prognosis. This work provides potential therapeutic targets for CRC treatment.

Metal Porphyrin Complex Combined with Polymerization and Isomerization Cyclic Amplification for a Sensitive Photoelectrochemical Assay

5,10,15,20-Tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)-21H,23H-porphine (TPAPP) possesses good light-harvesting ability and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cathode response signal; however, the disadvantages of easy stacking and weak hydrophilicity limit its application as a signal probe in PEC biosensors. Based on these, we prepared a Fe³⁺ and Cu²⁺ co-coordinating photoactive material (TPAPP-Fe/Cu) with horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-like activity. The metal ions in the porphyrin center not only enabled the directional flow of photogenerated electrons between electron-rich porphyrin and positive metal ions within inner-/intermolecular layers but also accelerated electron transfer through a synergistic redox reaction of Fe(III)/Fe(II) and Cu(II)/Cu(I) as well as rapid generation of superoxide anion radicals (O₂^-•) by mimicking catalytically produced and dissolved oxygen, thereby providing the desired cathode photoactive material with extremely high photoelectric conversion efficiency. Accordingly, by combining with toehold-mediated strand displacement (TSD)-induced single cycle and polymerization and isomerization cyclic amplification (PICA), an ultrasensitive PEC biosensor was constructed for the detection of colon cancer-related miRNA-182-5p. The ultratrace target could be converted to abundant output DNA by TSD possessing the desirable amplifying ability to trigger PICA for forming long ssDNA with repetitive sequences, thus decorating substantial TPAPP-Fe/Cu-labeled DNA signal probes for producing high PEC photocurrent. Meanwhile, the Mn(III) meso-tetraphenylporphine chloride (MnPP) was embedded in dsDNA to further exhibit a sensitization effect toward TPAPP-Fe/Cu and an acceleration effect analogous to that of metal ions in the porphyrin center above. As a result, the proposed biosensor displayed a detection limit as low as 0.2 fM, facilitating the development of high-performance biosensors and showing great potential in early clinical diagnosis.