BACKGROUND: Gene expression can be posttranscriptionally regulated by a complex network of proteins. N1-methyladenosine (m1A) is a newly validated RNA modification. However, little is known about both its influence and biogenesis in tumor development. METHODS: This study analyzed TCGA data of patients with five kinds of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Using data from cBioPortal, molecular features of the nine known m1A-related enzymes in GI cancers were investigated. Using a variety of bioinformatics approach, the impact of m1A regulators on its downstream signaling pathway was studied. To further confirm this regulation, the effect of m1A writer ALKBH3 knockdown was studied using RNA-seq data from published database. RESULTS: Dysregulation and multiple types of genetic alteration of putative m1A-related enzymes in tumor samples were observed. The ErbB and mTOR pathways with ErbB2, mTOR, and AKT1S1 hub genes were identified as being regulated by m1A-related enzymes. The expression of both ErbB2 and AKT1S1 was decreased after m1A writer ALKBH3 knockdown. Furthermore, Gene Ontology analysis revealed that m1A downstream genes were associated with cell proliferation, and the results showed that m1A genes are reliably linked to mTOR. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated for the first time the dysregulation of m1A regulators in GI cancer and its signaling pathways and will contribute to the understanding of RNA modification in cancer.

Over the past two decades, obesity has been one of the major public health concerns in most countries. In the search for new molecules that could be used for the treatment of obesity, good perspectives have been opened up for polyphenols, a class of natural bioactive phytochemicals. Experimental and limited clinical trial evidence supports that some polyphenols such as quercetin, curcumin, and resveratrol have potential benefit functions on obesity treatment. This brief review focuses on the main functions of the above-named polyphenols on adipose tissue. These polyphenols may play beneficial effects on adipose tissue under obese condition by alleviating intracellular oxidative stress, reducing chronic low-grade inflammation, inhibiting adipogenesis and lipogenesis, and suppressing the differentiation of preadipocytes to mature adipocytes.

Three pyrazolone-based ligands, namely 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-(1-naphthoyl)-5-pyrazolone (HL1), 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-(4-dimethylaminobenzoyl)-5-pyrazolone (HL2), and 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-(4-cyanobenzoyl)-5-pyrazolone (HL3), were synthesized by introducing electron-poor or electron-rich aryl substituents at the 4-position of the pyrazolone ring. Their corresponding europium complexes Eu(LX)3(H2O)2 and Eu(LX)3(TPPO)(H2O) (X = 1-3) were characterized by photophysical studies. The characteristic Eu(III) emission of these complexes with at most 9.2 x 10(-3) of fluorescent quantum yield was observed at room temperature. The results show that the modification of ligands tunes the triplet energy levels of three pyrazolone-based ligands to match the 5D0 energy level of Eu3+ properly and improves the energy transfer efficiency from antenna to Eu3+, therefore enhancing the Eu(III) emission intensity. The highest energy transfer efficiency and probability of lanthanide emission of Eu(L1)3(H2O)2 are 35.1% and 2.6%, respectively, which opens up broad prospects for improving luminescent properties of Eu(III) complexes by the modification of ligands. Furthermore, the electroluminescent properties of Eu(L1)3(TPPO)(H2O) were also investigated.

A highly conductive, ultralight, neat and versatile nitrogen-doped GNRs aerogel has been fabricated by a new hydrothermal method for the first time. The newly developed aerogel shows a very promising performance when used as a novel ORR catalyst in both alkaline and acidic solutions.