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In the recent years, bio-functionalized noble metal doped advanced magnetics nanocomposite materials has been materialized as potential featured catalysts in diverse applications. In this connection, we report herein a novel biogenic lignin driven Au nanoparticle supported Fe 3 O 4 composite material. The procedure is free from any harsh reducing or stabilizing agent. Morphology and structural features were assessed following different physicochemical methodologies like FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, EDS, XRD, VSM and ICP-OES techniques. Thereafter, the [Fe 3 O 4 /Lignin/Au] material was successfully employed in the efficient reduction of different nitroarenes in aqueous medium. The process was monitored over UV–Vis spectroscopic study. Excellent yields were achieved with a range of diverse functionalized nitroarenes within 10–45 min of reaction. The nanocatalyst was recycled 10 times without any significant loss of catalytic activity. Distinctiveness of the material's activity was validated by comparing the results in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. Furthermore, the prepared [Fe 3 O 4 /Lignin/Au] nanocomposite system exhibited outstanding antioxidant and anticancer effects against five lung cancer cell lines, such as, BICR 3, BICR 78, CALU 1, ChaGo-K-1, and A549. Cytotoxicity assay was determined in terms of % cell viability following MTT protocol. The corresponding IC 50 values were obtained as 47, 31, 19, 25, and 31 μg/mL respectively. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we report a novel Ag NPs fabricated chitosan-agarose composite functionalized core-shell type Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticle (Ag/CS-Agar@Fe 3 O 4). The biogenic material was analyzed over a number of physicochemical methods like, FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, EDX, XRD, VSM and ICP-OES. In catalytic exploration we aimed the synthesis of diverse 2 H -indazolo0- b ]phthalazine-trione derivatives via one-pot three component coupling of phathalalhydrazide, dimedone and different aldehydes. It afforded good to excellent yields under solvent-less conditions. Robustness of the catalyst was justified by catalyst recyclability for consecutive 10 times, hot filtration and leaching tests. Again, biological activity of the material was evaluated by studying the antioxidant and cytotoxicity properties over lung and liver cancer cell lines. Antioxidant potential of Ag/CS-Agar@Fe 3 O 4 was assessed by DPPH radical scavenging studies and the corresponding IC50 was found to be 96.57 μg/mL. Liver and lung cancer studies over Ag/CS-Agar@Fe 3 O 4 was carried out by MTT assay against HepG2 and A549 cell lines. The corresponding IC50 values were found as 192.35 and 365.28 μg/mL respectively. % Cell viability of the nanomaterial decreased dose dependently over both the cell lines without any cytotoxicity on normal cell line. The results demonstrates Ag/CS-Agar@Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposite to be an efficient chemotherapeutic drug against the lung and hepatocellular carcinoma cells. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objective Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers affecting men worldwide. However, the biological functions of circRNAs in PCa are still largely unknown. Methods Real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry were performed to characterize the circ-102004 expression in both human PCa tissues and cell lines. The apoptosis and cell cycle status of prostate immortalized cell lines that were overexpressed with circ-102004 by transfection was analyzed using flow cytometry. The scratch test and the Transwell assay were conducted to evaluate the ability of transfected cells to migrate and invade. RNA sequencing, pathway analysis, and Western blotting were performed to probe the associations of circ-102004 with the classical cancer signaling pathways after functionally evaluating circ-102004 in a xenograft tumor model. Results In the present study, circ-102004 expression was found to be significantly higher in PCa samples than in the matched normal tissues. In functional experiments, circ-102004 is shown to play an oncogenic role in PCa by stimulating cancer cell migration and invasion. Circ-102004 overexpression was also accompanied by significant alterations in many signaling pathways, such as ERK, JNK, and Hedgehog, which are known to cause different types of cancers. Conclusions Circ-102004 is a potential oncogenic gene that regulates the development and progression of PCa. This study provides a scientific basis for targeting circ-102004 for either diagnosis or therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2′- O -methylation (2OM) is an omnipresent post-transcriptional modification in RNAs. It is important for the regulation of RNA stability, mRNA splicing and translation, as well as innate immunity. With the increase in publicly available 2OM data, several computational tools have been developed for the identification of 2OM sites in human RNA. Unfortunately, these tools suffer from the low discriminative power of redundant features, unreasonable dataset construction or overfitting. To address those issues, based on four types of 2OM (2OM-adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and uracil (U)) data, we developed a two-step feature selection model to identify 2OM. For each type, the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) combined with mutual information (MI) was proposed to rank sequence features for obtaining the optimal feature subset. Subsequently, four predictors based on eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) or support vector machine (SVM) were presented to identify the four types of 2OM sites. Finally, the proposed model could produce an overall accuracy of 84.3 % on the independent set. To provide a convenience for users, an online tool called i2OM was constructed and can be freely access at i2om.lin-group.cn. The predictor may provide a reference for the study of the 2OM. • Prediction of 2′- O -methylation sites based on four types of nucleotide • Two-step feature selection to find the optimal feature subset • Developed a user-friendly web server for predicting 2′- O -methylation in human RNA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RNA N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) is the acetylation of cytidine at the nitrogen-4 position, which is a highly conserved RNA modification and involves a variety of biological processes. Hence, accurate identification of genome-wide ac4C sites is vital for understanding regulation mechanism of gene expression. In this work, a novel predictor, named iRNA-ac4C, was established to identify ac4C sites in human mRNA based on three feature extraction methods, including nucleotide composition, nucleotide chemical property, and accumulated nucleotide frequency. Subsequently, minimum-Redundancy-Maximum-Relevance combined with incremental feature selection strategies was utilized to select the optimal feature subset. According to the optimal feature subset, the best ac4C classification model was trained by gradient boosting decision tree with 10-fold cross-validation. The results of independent testing set indicated that our proposed method could produce encouraging generalization capabilities. For the convenience of other researchers, we established a user-friendly web server which is freely available at http://lin-group.cn/server/iRNA-ac4C/. We hope that the tool could provide guide for wet-experimental scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is one of the most prevalent urological carcinomas with a low overall 5-year survival rate, and its prognosis remains dismal. circular RNAs (circRNAs) has been discovered to be important regulators in ccRCC. However, the specific regulatory mechanisms of circRNAs and their impact on phenotypes require further in-depth research. circRNA microarray sequencing analysis was used in this study to explore the expression pattern of circRNAs in ccRCC. circWSB1 was discovered, and we evaluated its derivation, potential diagnostic efficacy, and prognostic significance in ccRCC tissues. We discovered that circWSB1 is highly expressed in ccRCC. We identified that circWSB1 interacts with miR-182-5p and upregulates the expression of its host gene, WSB1. Through models in vivo and in vitro models, we found that circWSB1 increases WSB1 expression via the circWSB1/miR-182-5p/WSB1 axis, which promotes ccRCC cell proliferation and migration. The high expression of circWSB1 and WSB1 is correlated with poorer clinical prognosis and pathological grading. circWSB1 diminishes the inhibitory impact of miR-182-5p on WSB1 and increases WSB1 expression, thereafter promoting ccRCC development. Our findings provide a promising predictive biomarker and therapeutic target for ccRCC. • We discovered circWSB1, a novel circRNA that is preferentially expressed in ccRCC. • Silencing circWSB1 inhibits ccRCC cell proliferation and migration. • Increased WSB1 expression via the circWSB1/miR-182-5p/WSB1 axis promotes ccRCC advancement. • This research could lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets for ccRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendrobium devonianum has been used as herbal medicines and nutraceutical products since ancient time in China. However, its chemical composition and pharmacological mechanisms are not fully known. In present studies, by chemical purification and characteristic identification, we discovered a novel polysaccharide from D. devonianum , which was designated as DvP-1 with molecular weights of 9.52 × 104 Da. DvP-1 is a homogeneous heteropolysaccharide consisting of D-mannose and d -glucose in the molar ration of 10.11: 1. The main glycosidic linkages were β-1, 4-Man p , which were substituted with acetyl groups at the O-2, O-3 and/or O-6 positions. DvP-1 was found to directly stimulate the activation of macrophages in vitro , as evidenced by inducing morphologic change, thereby promoting the production of cytokines TNF-α, IL-6 and NO, and enhancing the pinocytic activity of macrophages. By establishing a zebrafish model, we also found that DvP-1 could alleviate vinorelbine-induced decrease of macrophages in vivo. Further findings indicated that DvP-1 activated macrophages through several toll-like receptors (TLRs), but mainly through TLR4. DvP-1 served as a TLR4 agonist and induced ERK, JNK, p38, and IκB-α phosphorylation, suggesting the activation of MAPK and NFκB signaling pathways downstream of TLR4. These findings could help us further understand the immunomodulating effects of D. devonianum in Chinese medicines or health foods for immunocompromised persons. They also show the medicinal value of DvP-1 for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases caused by TLR4 dysfunction. • A novel homogeneous polysaccharide (DvP-1) was isolated from D. devonianum. • DvP-1 stimulated the activation of macrophages in vitro and in zebrafish. • DvP-1 activated TLR4 and its downstream MAPK and NFκB signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enzymatic browning and bacterial putrefaction are mainly responsible for quality losses of Chinese Olive ( Canarium album ) postharvest and lead to very short shelf life on average. Screening anti-browning and anti-bacterial agents is important for preservation of Chinese Olive. Caffeic acid N -nonyl ester (C-9) and caffeic acid N - Heptyl ester (C-7) was synthesized as inhibitors of tyrosinase, which is a key enzyme in browning process. The compound of C-9 could inhibit the activity of tyrosinase strongly and its IC 50 value was determined to be 37.5 μM, while the compound of C-7 had no inhibitory ability. Kinetic analyses showed that compound of C-9 has been a reversible inhibitory mechanism below 50 μM and been irreversible mechanisms above 50 μM. For the reversible inhibitory mechanism, the values of inhibitory constants ( K I and K IS ) were determined to be 24.6 and 37.4 μM, respectively. The results of Chinese Olive fruit postharvest showed that the compound of C-9 could effectively anti-browning and anti-bacterial putrefaction. In addition, this compound had strong antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli , Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella . Therefore, C-9 could be a potential anti-browning and anti-bacterial reagent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]