Nowadays, the biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles, particularly from plants, has been gaining interest. In the present work, the methanolic extracts of leaves, fruits, and the pollen grains of Sabal blackburniana were used for the green synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles, which were early detected by the formation of precipitate and further confirmed by UV-vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy and zeta potential (ZP) studies. TEM analysis has shown different shapes, predominantly irregular small spherical narrow particles included in hexagonal structures with size ranging from 2.23 to 49.56 nm. The XRD pattern confirmed that all synthesized ZnO nanoparticles have wurtzite hexagonal structure with crystalline nature. The average particle crystallite sizes were 47.21, 47.67 and 47.8 nm. The UV-visible spectra showed λ_max in the range of 354–368 nm, which indicated the presence of ZnO nanoparticles. The FT-IR analysis identifies the characteristic functional groups present on the surface of ZnO nanoparticles. The ZP determination demonstrated that all representative selected synthesized ZnONPs exhibited acceptable ZP values of −30.8 to −45.9 mV, which indicated their good stability. In addition, the anti-Alzheimer potential of the selected extracts and ZnONPs was evaluated by assessing acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity in vitro according to the improved Ellman method. The results indicated that the selected extracts have acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity, and highlighted the promising inhibitory potential of green-synthesized ZnONPs using pollen grains, fruits and leaves extracts; they exhibited a potent inhibitory effect with IC₅₀ values 63.78 ± 1.04651, 81.985 ± 3.075 and 117.95 ± 6.858 ng ml⁻¹ respectively in comparison to donepezil as standard (IC₅₀ = 50.7 ± 5.769 ng ml⁻¹). Dereplication analysis of the selected extracts was performed using LC-MS; metabolic profiling revealed the presence of 41 compounds belonging to various chemical classes: flavonoids, steroidal saponins, terpenoids, alkaloids, lignans, sterols and fatty acids. Docking these dereplicated metabolites against the human AChE showed that the non-glycosylated flavonoid class of compounds was able to achieve interesting binding modes inside the AChE active site; they are suggested to be associated with the observed anti-AChE activity of Sabal extracts. This study is the first report to shed light on the acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of green-synthesized ZnO nanoparticles of S. blackburniana metabolites.

Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) telomerase RNA component (TERC) has telomerase-dependent and independent activity in numerous cancer types. The present study purposes to demonstrate the role of lncRNA TERC as a diagnostic serum biomarker in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and the molecular mechanism of lncRNA TERC in inducing tumor in CRC cell lines. PCR array was performed to examine lncRNAs dysregulated in CRC. LncRNA TERC expression level was evaluated in 70 CRC patients and 35 control subjects using RT-qPCR. Then transfection was performed to build down-expression models of lncRNA TERC. ROC curve analysis was applied to assess the diagnostic value of serum LncRNA CRC. In addition, RT-qPCR was used to detect expression level of lncRNA TERC and β-catenin mRNA. Moreover, ELISA and Western blot were used to detect the level of β-catenin protein in sera of CRC patients and cell lines. The biological functions such as cell growth and migration of CRC cells were assessed using a wound healing assay. Cell cycle analysis and apoptosis analysis were performed using flow cytometry. The lncRNA TERC is overexpressed in the sera of CRC patients with high diagnostic and stage discrimination accuracy. Furthermore, lncRNA TERC expression was upregulated in CRC cell lines and lncRNA TERC silencing induced cell arrest and apoptosis and inhibited cell migration. Furthermore, inhibition of lncRNA TERC reduces β-catenin protein levels. The lncRNA TERC could be considered as an early stages CRC diagnostic biomarker with a good ability to discriminate between CRC stages. lncRNA TERC induces CRC by promoting cell migration and evading apoptosis by elevating the level of β-catenin protein.