MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been indicated to be frequently dysregulated in various cancers and promising biomarkers for colon cancer. The present study aimed to assess the prognostic significance and biological function of miR-1273a in colon cancer. The expression levels of miR-1273a was estimated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression analysis were used to evaluate the prognostic value of miR-1273a in patients of colon cancer. The effects of miR-1273a on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were investigated by cell experiments. The expression of miR-1273a was downregulated in colon cancer tissues and tumor cell lines compared with the normal controls (all P<0.001). The aberrant expression of miR-1273a was associated with vascular invasion (P=0.005), differentiation (P=0.023), lymph node metastasis (P=0.021), and TNM stage (P=0.004). The patients with low miR-1273a expression had low overall survival compared with the patients with high miR-1273a expression (log-rank P=0.002). miR-1273a was detected to be an independent prognostic biomarker for patients. Furthermore, the results of cell experiments revealed that miR-1273a downregulation promoted, while miR-1273a upregulation suppressed the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. In conclusion, all data indicated that a downregulated expression of miR-1273a predicted poor prognosis for colon cancer and enhanced tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Thus, we suggest that methods to promote miR-1273a expression may serve as novel therapeutic strategies in colon cancer.

Abstract Brønsted acidic ionic liquids composed of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium, triethylbutylammonium, and 1-butylpyridinium cation counterparts and HSO4‾ and H2PO4‾ anion counterparts were used as the catalysts for the selective chlorination of glycerol with hydrogen chloride to 3-chloro-1,2-propandiol. From the perspective of the glycerol conversion and product yields, the catalytic activities of the ionic liquids containing HSO4‾ were higher than the ionic liquids containing H2PO4‾. As compared with the carboxylic acid catalysts, Brønsted acidic ionic liquids favored the catalytic chlorination of glycerol to 3-chloro-1,2-propandiol. When the glycerol chlorination was catalyzed by the Brønsted acidic ionic liquids at 110 ºC for 12 h with the catalyst loading of 0.75 mol·kg‾1 glycerol, the 3-chloro-1,2-propandiol yield was more than 81% at the complete conversion of glycerol.