The role of chlorine atom on the binding between 2‐phenyl‐1H‐benzimidazole analogues and fat mass and obesity‐associated protein

Implications of m6A methylation and microbiota interaction in non-small cell lung cancer: From basics to therapeutics

N6-methyladenine (m6A) is one of the most common RNA epigenetic modifications in all higher eukaryotes. Increasing evidence demonstrated that m6A-related proteins, acted as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, are abnormally expressed in the cell lines and tissues of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In addition, lung as the special immune organ contacts with the outer environments and thereby inevitably suffers from different types of microbial pathogen attack. Those microbial pathogens affect the development, progression, and clinical outcomes of NSCLC via altering host m6A modification to disrupt pulmonary immune homeostasis and increase the susceptibility; conversely, host cells modulate m6A modification to repress bacterial colonization. Therefore, m6A harbors the potential to be the novel biomarkers and targets for predicting poor prognosis and chemotherapy sensitivity of patients with lung cancer. In this paper, we provided an overview of the biological properties of m6A-modifying enzymes, and the mechanistic links among lung microbiota, m6A modification and NSCLC. Although the flood of novel m6A-related inhibitors represents many dramatic improvements in NSCLC therapy, their efficacy and toxicity in NSCLC are explored to address these pivotal gaps in the field.

Recent Advances of m6A Demethylases Inhibitors and Their Biological Functions in Human Diseases

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a post-transcriptional RNA modification and one of the most abundant types of RNA chemical modifications. m6A functions as a molecular switch and is involved in a range of biomedical aspects, including cardiovascular diseases, the central nervous system, and cancers. Conceptually, m6A methylation can be dynamically and reversibly modulated by RNA methylation regulatory proteins, resulting in diverse fates of mRNAs. This review focuses on m6A demethylases fat-mass- and obesity-associated protein (FTO) and alkB homolog 5 (ALKBH5), which especially erase m6A modification from target mRNAs. Recent advances have highlighted that FTO and ALKBH5 play an oncogenic role in various cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemias (AML), glioblastoma, and breast cancer. Moreover, studies in vitro and in mouse models confirmed that FTO-specific inhibitors exhibited anti-tumor effects in several cancers. Accumulating evidence has suggested the possibility of FTO and ALKBH5 as therapeutic targets for specific diseases. In this review, we aim to illustrate the structural properties of these two m6A demethylases and the development of their specific inhibitors. Additionally, this review will summarize the biological functions of these two m6A demethylases in various types of cancers and other human diseases.

Inhibition of AlkB Nucleic Acid Demethylases: Promising New Epigenetic Targets

The AlkB family of nucleic acid demethylases is currently of intense chemical, biological, and medical interest because of its critical roles in several key cellular processes, including epigenetic gene regulation, RNA metabolism, and DNA repair. Emerging evidence suggests that dysregulation of AlkB demethylases may underlie the pathogenesis of several human diseases, particularly obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Hence there is strong interest in developing selective inhibitors for these enzymes to facilitate their mechanistic and functional studies and to validate their therapeutic potential. Herein we review the remarkable advances made over the past 20 years in AlkB demethylase inhibition research. We discuss the rational design of reported inhibitors, their mode-of-binding, selectivity, cellular activity, and therapeutic opportunities. We further discuss unexplored structural elements of the AlkB subfamilies and propose potential strategies to enable subfamily selectivity. It is hoped that this perspective will inspire novel inhibitor design and advance drug discovery research in this field.

Structural characteristics of small-molecule inhibitors targeting FTO demethylase

Studies have shown that the FTO gene is closely related to obesity and weight gain in humans. FTO is an N⁶-methyladenosine demethylase and is linked to an increased risk of obesity and a variety of diseases, such as acute myeloid leukemia, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, glioblastoma and cervical squamous cell carcinoma. In light of the significant role of FTO, the development of small-molecule inhibitors targeting the FTO protein provides not only a powerful tool for grasping the active site of FTO but also a theoretical basis for the design and synthesis of drugs targeting the FTO protein. This review focuses on the structural characteristics of FTO inhibitors and discusses the occurrence of obesity and cancer caused by FTO gene overexpression.