Synthetic ligand promotes gene expression by affecting GC sequence in promoter

Protein-protein interaction and interference of carcinogenesis by supramolecular modifications

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are essential in normal biological processes, but they can become disrupted or imbalanced in cancer. Various technological advancements have led to an increase in the number of PPI inhibitors, which target hubs in cancer cell's protein networks. However, it remains difficult to develop PPI inhibitors with desired potency and specificity. Supramolecular chemistry has only lately become recognized as a promising method to modify protein activities. In this review, we highlight recent advances in the use of supramolecular modification approaches in cancer therapy. We make special note of efforts to apply supramolecular modifications, such as molecular tweezers, to targeting the nuclear export signal (NES), which can be used to attenuate signaling processes in carcinogenesis. Finally, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of using supramolecular approaches to targeting PPIs.

MDIPA: a microRNA-drug interaction prediction approach based on non-negative matrix factorization

MOTIVATION

Evidence has shown that microRNAs, one type of small biomolecule, regulate the expression level of genes and play an important role in the development or treatment of diseases. Drugs, as important chemical compounds, can interact with microRNAs and change their functions. The experimental identification of microRNA-drug interactions is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, it is appealing to develop effective computational approaches for predicting microRNA-drug interactions.

RESULTS

In this study, a matrix factorization-based method, called the microRNA-drug interaction prediction approach (MDIPA), is proposed for predicting unknown interactions among microRNAs and drugs. Specifically, MDIPA utilizes experimentally validated interactions between drugs and microRNAs, drug similarity and microRNA similarity to predict undiscovered interactions. A path-based microRNA similarity matrix is constructed, while the structural information of drugs is used to establish a drug similarity matrix. To evaluate its performance, our MDIPA is compared with four state-of-the-art prediction methods with an independent dataset and cross-validation. The results of both evaluation methods confirm the superior performance of MDIPA over other methods. Finally, the results of molecular docking in a case study with breast cancer confirm the efficacy of our approach. In conclusion, MDIPA can be effective in predicting potential microRNA-drug interactions.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION

All code and data are freely available from https://github.com/AliJam82/MDIPA.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Pharmaceutical Applications of Molecular Tweezers, Clefts and Clips

Synthetic acyclic receptors, composed of two arms connected with a spacer enabling molecular recognition, have been intensively explored in host-guest chemistry in the past decades. They fall into the categories of molecular tweezers, clefts and clips, depending on the geometry allowing the recognition of various guests. The advances in synthesis and mechanistic studies have pushed them forward to pharmaceutical applications, such as neurodegenerative disorders, infectious diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. In this review, we provide a summary of the synthetic molecular tweezers, clefts and clips that have been reported for pharmaceutical applications. Their structures, mechanism of action as well as in vitro and in vivo results are described. Such receptors were found to selectively bind biological guests, namely, nucleic acids, sugars, amino acids and proteins enabling their use as biosensors or therapeutics. Particularly interesting are dynamic molecular tweezers which are capable of controlled motion in response to an external stimulus. They proved their utility as imaging agents or in the design of controlled release systems. Despite some issues, such as stability, cytotoxicity or biocompatibility that still need to be addressed, it is obvious that molecular tweezers, clefts and clips are promising candidates for several incurable diseases as therapeutic agents, diagnostic or delivery tools.

Genetic polymorphisms of NOS2 and predisposition to fracture non-union: A case control study based on Han Chinese population

A non-union, especially atrophic non-unions, is a permanent failure of healing following a fracture and can be difficult to treat. Approximately 5–10% of fractures will result in a non-union during the healing process. non-unions can be classified into two types: atrophic non-union which is often due to impaired bone healing with a potential biological mechanism, and hypertrophic non-union which is due to inadequate fixation after fracture. Genetic variations also play an important role in the fracture healing response. Previous studies based on animal models have indicated that NOS2 might be greatly involved in the bone fracture healing process. In this case-control study, 346 nonunion patients were compared to 883 patients with normal fracture healing to investigate the potential genetic association between NOS2 and the fracture healing process using study subjects of Chinese Han ancestry. Twenty-seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering NOS2 were genotyped in our study subjects and analyzed. In addition to the single marker-based analysis, we performed a gene-by-environment analysis to examine the potential interactions between genetic polymorphisms and some environmental factors. SNP rs2297514 showed significant association with the fracture healing process after adjusting for age and gender (OR = 1.38, P = 0.0005). Our results indicated that the T allele of rs2297514 significantly increased the risk of a non-union during the fracture healing process by 38% compared to the C allele. Further stratification analyses conducted for this SNP using data from subgroups classified by different sites of fracture indicated that significance could only be observed in the tibial diaphysis subgroup (N = 428, OR = 1.77, P = 0.0007) but not other groups including femur diaphysis, humeral shaft, ulnar shaft, and femur neck. Gene-by-environment interaction analyses of the three environmental factors showed no significant results. In this study, rs2297514 was significantly associated with the non-union status of fracture healing using a large Chinese population-based study sample. Our findings replicated those of a previous preliminary study and offered strong evidence linking NOS2 and fracture healing.