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Chemical modifications of ribonucleotides significantly alter the physicochemical properties and functions of RNA. Initially perceived as static and essential marks in ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA), recent discoveries unveiled a dynamic landscape of RNA modifications in messenger RNA (mRNA) and other regulatory RNAs. These findings spurred extensive efforts to map the distribution and function of RNA modifications, aiming to elucidate their distribution and functional significance in normal cellular homeostasis and pathological states. Significant dysregulation of RNA modifications is extensively documented in cancers, accentuating the potential of RNA-modifying enzymes as therapeutic targets. However, the essential role of several RNA-modifying enzymes in normal physiological functions raises concerns about potential side effects. A notable example is N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10), which is responsible for acetylating cytidines in RNA. While emerging evidence positions NAT10 as an oncogenic factor and a potential target in various cancer types, its essential role in normal cellular processes complicates the development of targeted therapies. This review aims to comprehensively analyze the essential and oncogenic properties of NAT10. We discuss its crucial role in normal cell biology and aging alongside its contribution to cancer development and progression. We advocate for agnostic approaches to disentangling the intertwined essential and oncogenic functions of RNA-modifying enzymes. Such approaches are crucial for understanding the full spectrum of RNA-modifying enzymes and imperative for designing effective and safe therapeutic strategies., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Recently, we reported that N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) regulates fatty acid metabolism through ac4C-dependent RNA modification of key genes in cancer cells. During this work, we noticed ferroptosis as one of the most negatively enriched pathways among other pathways in NAT10-depleted cancer cells. In the current work, we explore the possibility of whether NAT10 acts as an epitranscriptomic regulator of the ferroptosis pathway in cancer cells. Global ac4C levels and expression of NAT10 with other ferroptosis-related genes were assessed via dotblot and RT-qPCR, respectively. Flow cytometry and biochemical analysis were used to assess oxidative stress and ferroptosis features. The ac4C-mediated mRNA stability was conducted using RIP-PCR and mRNA stability assay. Metabolites were profiled using LC-MS/MS. Our results showed significant downregulation in expression of essential genes related to ferroptosis, namely SLC7A11 , GCLC , MAP1LC3A , and SLC39A8 in NAT10-depleted cancer cells. Further, we noticed a reduction in cystine uptake and reduced GSH levels, along with elevated ROS, and lipid peroxidation levels in NAT10-depleted cells. Consistently, overproduction of oxPLs, as well as increased mitochondrial depolarization and decreased activities of antioxidant enzymes, support the notion of ferroptosis induction in NAT10-depleted cancer cells. Mechanistically, a reduced ac4C level shortens the half-life of GCLC and SLC7A11 mRNA, resulting in low levels of intracellular cystine and reduced GSH, failing to detoxify ROS, and leading to increased cellular oxPLs, which facilitate ferroptosis induction. Collectively, our findings suggest that NAT10 restrains ferroptosis by stabilizing the SLC7A11 mRNA transcripts in order to avoid oxidative stress that induces oxidation of phospholipids to initiate ferroptosis.

Neurodegenerative diseases exert an overwhelming socioeconomic burden all around the globe. They are mainly characterized by modified protein accumulation that might trigger various biological responses, including oxidative stress, inflammation, regulation of signaling pathways, and excitotoxicity. These disorders have been widely studied during the last decade in the hopes of developing symptom-oriented therapeutics. However, no definitive cure has yet been discovered. Tea is one of the world's most popular beverages. The same plant, Camellia Sinensis (L.).O. Kuntze, is used to make green, black, and oolong teas. Green tea has been most thoroughly studied because of its anti-cancer, anti-obesity, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties. The beneficial effect of consumption of tea on neurodegenerative disorders has been reported in several human interventional and observational studies. The polyphenolic compounds found in green tea, known as catechins, have been demonstrated to have many therapeutic effects. They can help in preventing and, somehow, treating neurodegenerative diseases. Catechins show anti-inflammatory as well as antioxidant effects via blocking cytokines' excessive production and inflammatory pathways, as well as chelating metal ions and free radical scavenging. They may inhibit tau protein phosphorylation, amyloid beta aggregation, and release of apoptotic proteins. They can also lower alpha-synuclein levels and boost dopamine levels. All these factors have the potential to affect neurodegenerative disorders. This review will examine catechins' neuroprotective effects by highlighting their biological, pharmacological, antioxidant, and metal chelation abilities, with a focus on their ability to activate diverse cellular pathways in the brain. This review also points out the mechanisms of catechins in various neurodegenerative and cognitive diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and cognitive deficit.

It has been reported from the previous literature that butin restores mitochondrial dysfunction by modulation of oxidative stress and glutamate-induced neurotoxicity in mouse hippocampus HT22 cells. Butin also possesses an anti-Huntington's effect in rats. Considering the current background, this study was designed to evaluate the neuroprotective effect of butin against memory loss caused by streptozotocin (STZ). STZ (40 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally injected into rats. Three days later, diabetic rats were identified and included in the study. A total of 30 rats (12 nondiabetic and 18 diabetics) were grouped as Group A (control-non-diabetic rats) and Group B (STZ diabetic control) were treated with 1 mL of sodium CMC (0.5% w/v ). Group C (STZ+ butin 25) were treated with butin 25 mg/kg. Group D (STZ+ butin 50) and Group E (butin per se) were administered with butin 50 mg/kg. Each therapy was administered orally once each day for 15-day. The Morris water maze and the Y-maze behavioural tests were run throughout the experimental programme. Animals were put to death on day 15 and their brains were removed for biochemical assays (CAT, SOD, GSH, MDA, nitrite, acetylcholinesterase (AchE), IL-1, and mitochondrial enzyme complexes). Rats with neurobehavioral impairments brought on by STZ have less spontaneous movement, learning capacity, and memory. Additionally, STZ decreased endogenous antioxidants and increased pro-inflammatory cytokines, nitrite, MDA, and AchE. Neurobehavioral deficits and metabolic markers were dramatically improved by butin.

Brain metastasis is one of the major reasons of death in breast cancer (BC) patients, significantly affecting the quality of life, physical activity, and interdependence on several individuals. There is no clear evidence in scientific literature that depicts an exact mechanism relating to brain metastasis in BC patients. The tendency to develop breast cancer brain metastases (BCBMs) differs by the BC subtype, varying from almost half with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (HER2 - ER - PR - ), one-third with HER2 + (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive, and around one-tenth with luminal subclass (ER + (estrogen positive) or PR + (progesterone positive)) breast cancer. This review focuses on the molecular pathways as possible therapeutic targets of BCBMs and their potent drugs under different stages of clinical trial. In view of increased numbers of clinical trials and systemic studies, the scientific community is hopeful of unraveling the underlying mechanisms of BCBMs that will help in designing an effective treatment regimen with multiple molecular targets.

Background: N-4 cytidine acetylation (ac4C) is an epitranscriptomics modification catalyzed by N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10); important for cellular mRNA stability, rRNA biogenesis, cell proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, whether other crucial pathways are regulated by NAT10-dependent ac4C modification in cancer cells remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we explored the impact of NAT10 depletion in cancer cells using unbiased RNA-seq., Methods: High-throughput sequencing of knockdown NAT10 in cancer cells was conducted to identify enriched pathways. Acetylated RNA immunoprecipitation-seq (acRIP-seq) and RIP-PCR were used to map and determine ac4C levels of RNA. Exogenous palmitate uptake assay was conducted to assess NAT10 knockdown cancer cells using Oil Red O staining and lipid content analysis. Gas-chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) was used to perform untargeted lipidomics., Results: High-throughput sequencing of NAT10 knockdown in cancer cells revealed fatty acid (FA) metabolism as the top enriched pathway through the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis in differentially downregulated genes. FA metabolic genes such as ELOLV6, ACSL1, ACSL3, ACSL4, ACADSB and ACAT1 were shown to be stabilised via NAT10-dependent ac4C RNA acetylation. Additionally, NAT10 depletion was shown to significantly reduce the levels of overall lipid content, triglycerides and total cholesterol. Further, NAT10 depletion in palmitate-loaded cancer cells showed decrease in ac4C levels across the RNA transcripts of FA metabolic genes. In untargeted lipidomics, 496 out of 2 279 lipids were statistically significant in NAT10 depleted cancer cells, of which pathways associated with FA metabolism are the most enriched., Conclusions: Conclusively, our results provide novel insights into the impact of NAT10-mediated ac4C modification as a crucial regulatory factor during FA metabolism and showed the benefit of targeting NAT10 for cancer treatment., (© 2022 The Authors. Clinical and Translational Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Shanghai Institute of Clinical Bioinformatics.)

The second most common cause of mortality among women is breast cancer. A variety of natural compounds have been demonstrated to be beneficial in the management of various malignancies. Resveratrol is a promising anticancer polyphenolic compound found in grapes, berries, etc. Nevertheless, its low solubility, and hence its low bioavailability, restrict its therapeutic potential. Therefore, in our study, we developed a thermosensitive hydrogel formulation loaded with resveratrol nanoemulsion to enhance its bioavailability. Initially, resveratrol nanoemulsions were formulated and optimized utilizing a central composite-face-centered design. The independent variables for optimization were surfactant level, homogenization speed, and time, while the size and zeta potential were the dependent variables. The optimized nanoemulsion formulation was converted into a sensitive hydrogel using poloxamer 407. Rheological studies proved the formation of gel consistency at physiological temperature. Drug loading efficiency and in vitro drug release from gels were also analyzed. The drug release mechanisms from the gels were assessed using various mathematical models. The effect of the optimized thermosensitive resveratrol nanoemulsion hydrogel on the viability of human breast cancer cells was tested using MCF-7 cancer cell lines. The globule size of the selected formulation was 111.54 ± 4.16 nm, with a zeta potential of 40.96 ± 3.1 mV. Within 6 h, the in vitro release profile demonstrated a release rate of 80%. According to cell line studies, the produced hydrogel of resveratrol nanoemulsion was cytotoxic to breast cancer cells. Overall, the results proved the developed nanoemulsion-loaded thermosensitive hydrogel is a promising platform for the effective delivery of resveratrol for the management of breast cancer.

Remodelin is a small molecule inhibitor of N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10), reported to reverse the effect of cancer conditions such as epithelial to mesenchymal transition, hypoxia, and drug resistance. We analysed RNA seq data of siNAT10 and found many metabolic pathways were altered, this made us perform unbiased metabolic analysis. Here we performed untargeted metabolomics in Remodelin treated cancer cells using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Statistical analysis revealed a total number of 138 of which 52 metabolites were significantly modified in Remodelin treated cells. Among the most significantly altered metabolites, we identified metabolites related with mitochondrial fatty acid elongation (MFAE) and mitochondrial beta-oxidation such as lauroyl-CoA, cholesterol, triglycerides, (S)-3-hydroxyhexadecanoyl-CoA, and NAD + . Furthermore, assessment showed alteration in expression of Enoyl-CoA hydratase, short chain 1, mitochondrial (ECHS1), and Mitochondrial trans-2-enoyl-CoA reductase (MECR) genes, associated with MFAE pathway. We also found statistically significant decrease in total cholesterol and triglycerides in Remodelin treated cancer cells. Overall, our results showed that Remodelin alters mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism and lipid accumulation in cancer cells. Finally, we validated these results in NAT10 knockdown cancer cells and found that NAT10 reduction results in alteration in gene expression associated with mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism, clearly suggesting the possible role of NAT10 in maintaining mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

MicroRNA is a small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) involved in gene silencing and regulating post-transcriptional gene expression. miRNAs play an essential role in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, viral diseases and cancer. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), arising from different stages of B-cell differentiation whose pathogenesis involves miRNAs. Various viral and non-viral vectors are used as a delivery vehicle for introducing specific miRNA inside the cell. Adenoviruses are linear, double-stranded DNA viruses with 35 kb genome size and are extensively used in gene therapy. Meanwhile, Adeno-associated viruses accommodate up to 4.8 kb foreign genetic material and are favorable for transferring miRNA due to small size of miRNA. The genetic material is integrated into the DNA of the host cell by retroviruses so that only dividing cells are infected and stable expression of miRNA is achieved. Over the years, remarkable progress was made to understand DLBCL biology using advanced genomics and epigenomics technologies enabling oncologists to uncover multiple genetic mutations in DLBCL patients. These genetic mutations are involved in epigenetic modification, ability to escape immunosurveillance, impaired BCL6 and NF-κβ signaling pathways and blocking terminal differentiation. These pathways have since been identified and used as therapeutic targets for the treatment of DLBCL. Recently miRNAs were also identified to act either as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in DLBCL pathology by altering the expression levels of some of the known DLBCL related oncogenes. i.e., miR-155, miR-17-92 and miR-21 act as oncogenes by altering the expression levels of MYC , SHIP and FOXO1, respectively, conversely; miR-34a, mir-144 and miR-181a act as tumor suppressors by altering the expression levels of SIRT1, BCL6 and CARD11, respectively. Hundreds of miRNAs have already been identified as biomarkers in the prognosis and diagnosis of DLBCL because of their significant roles in DLBCL pathogenesis. In conclusion, miRNAs in addition to their role as biomarkers of prognosis and diagnosis could also serve as potential therapeutic targets for treating DLBCL.

N-acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10), is an acetyltransferase that regulates RNA stability and translation processes. Association of NAT10 with several diseases including cancer, makes it a promising therapeutic target. Remodelin is the only known NAT10 inhibitor, but the structural information related to its binding with NAT10 is still obscure. Here, we predicted the human NAT10 structure using homology modeling that was not available previously and used human NAT10 to identify the novel binding site(s) of Remodelin. The alignment of the modeled human NAT10 showed 24% identity and 37% positivity with crystal structure of tRNA (Met) cytidine acetyltransferase. Molecular docking showed binding of Remodelin with NAT10 in acetyl-CoA binding pocket. Additionally, we screened a library of FDA-approved drugs for the identification of novel inhibitors of NAT10 activity. Binding score showed that four drugs namely, Fosaprepitant (- 11.709), Leucal (- 10.46), Fludarabine (- 10.347) and Dantrolene (- 9.875) bind to NAT10 and have better binding capability when compared with Acetyl-CoA (- 5.691) and Remodelin (- 5.3). Acetyl-CoA, Remodelin, and others exhibit hits for hydrophobic, hydrophilic and hydrogen interactions. Interestingly, Remodelin and others interact with the amino acid residues ILE629, GLY639, GLY641, LEU719, and PHE722 in the Acetyl-CoA binding pocket of NAT10 similar to Acetyl-CoA. Our findings revealed that Fosaprepitant, Leucal, Fludarabine, and Dantrolene are promising molecules that can be tested and developed as potential inhibitors of NAT10 acetyltransferase activity.