Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) govern fundamental biochemical and cellular processes. lncRNA HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) represses gene expression through recruitment of chromatin modifiers. The expression of HOTAIR is elevated in lung cancer and correlates with metastasis and poor prognosis. Moreover, HOTAIR promotes proliferation, survival, invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance in lung cancer cells. Here we review the molecular mechanisms underlying HOTAIR-mediated aggressive phenotypes of lung cancer. We also discuss HOTAIR’s potential in diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, as well as the challenges of exploiting HOTAIR for intervention of lung cancer.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13045-014-0090-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Hydrogen-bonding interactions in DNA/RNA systems are a defining feature of double helical systems. They also play a critical role in stabilizing other higher-order structures, such as hairpin loops, and thus in the broadest sense can be considered as key requisites to the successful translation and replication of genetic information. This importance, coupled with the aesthetic appeal of nucleic acid base (nucleobase) hydrogen-bond interactions, has inspired the use of such motifs to stabilize a range of synthetic structures. This, in turn, has led to the formation of a number of novel ensembles. This tutorial review will discuss these structures, both from a synthetic perspective and in terms of their potential application in areas that include, but are not limited to, self-assembled macrocyclic and high-order ensemble synthesis, supramolecular polymer preparation, molecular cage construction, and energy and electron transfer modeling.

Intramolecular transport of vibrational energy in two series of oligomers featuring alkane chains of various length was studied by relaxation-assisted two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy. The transport was initiated by exciting various end-group modes (tags) such as different modes of the azido (ν(N≡N) and ν(N═N)), carboxylic acid (ν(C═O)), and succinimide ester (νas(C═O)) with short mid-IR laser pulses. It is shown that the transport via alkane chains is ballistic and the transport speed is dependent on the type of the tag mode that initiates the transport. The transport speed of 8.0 Å/ps was observed when initiated by either ν(C═O) or νas(C═O). When initiated by ν(N≡N) and ν(N═N), the transport speed of 14.4 ± 2 and 11 ± 4 Å/ps was observed. Analysis of the vibrational relaxation channels of different tags, combined with the results for the group velocity evaluation, permits identification of the chain bands predominantly contributing to the transport for different cases of the transport initiation. For the transport initiated by ν(N≡N) the CH2 twisting and wagging chain bands were identified as the major energy transport channels. For the transport initiated by ν(C═O), the C-C stretching and CH2 rocking chain bands served as major energy transporters. The transport initiated by ν(N═N) results in direct formation of the wave packet within the CH2 twisting and wagging chain bands. These developments can aid in designing molecular systems featuring faster and more controllable energy transport in molecules.

Dual-frequency relaxation-assisted two-dimensional infrared (RA 2DIR) spectroscopy was used to investigate energy transport in polyethylene glycol (PEG) oligomers of different length, having 0, 4, 8, and 12 repeating units and end-labeled with azido and succinimide ester moieties (azPEGn). The energy transport initiated by excitation of the N≡N stretching mode of the azido group in azPEGn in CCl(4) at ca. 2100 cm(-1) was recorded by probing the C=O stretching modes (reporters) of the succinimide ester moiety. Sensitive to the excess energy delivered to the reporter modes, RA 2DIR permits observation of both the through-bond and through-solvent energy transport contributions. The cross-peak data involving the reporter modes with different thermal sensitivity and the data for mixtures of compounds permitted concluding that through-bond energy transport is the dominant mechanism for most cross peaks in all four azPEGn compounds. The through-bond energy transport time, evaluated as the waiting time at which the cross peak maximum is reached, was found to be linearly dependent on the chain length of up to 60 Å, suggesting a ballistic energy transport regime. The through-bond energy transport speed determined from the chain-length dependence of T(max) in CCl(4) is found to be ca. 450 m s(-1). The cross-peak amplitude at the maximum decays exponentially with the chain length; a characteristic decay distance is found to be 15.7 ± 1 Å. The cross-peak amplitude at zero waiting time, determined by the end-to-end distance distribution, is found to decay with the chain length (L) as ∼L(-1.4), which is close to predictions of the free flight chain model. The match indicates that the end-group interaction does not strongly perturb the end-to-end distribution, which is close to the ideal random coil distribution with the Gaussian probability density.

A novel porphyrin-fullerene dyad assembled through Watson-Crick hydrogen bonds is described; this system undergoes photoinduced electron transfer upon irradiation with visible light to produce a charge separated state that is substantially longer lived than that of previous dyads of this type.