A) HCC366, H322, and A549 were transfected with TUSC2 then either treated with 1 µM MK2206 for 24 hours or left untreated. AMPK kinase activity in the immunocomplexes was measured by phosphorylation of SAMS peptide as described in Materials and Methods. Columns, mean of three different experiments, each with duplicate samples; bars, SD. *, P<0.05, compared with EV control; **, P<0.05, compared with EV+MK2206. LKB1- defective cells HCC366 and H322 cells were co-transfected with 2 µg TUSC2 plasmid and 50 nM AMPK siRNA with Lipofectamine™ 2000. Twenty-four hours after transfection, cells were starved for 24 hours and treated with 1 µM MK2206 for an additional 48 hours. B) Cell lysis were collected for western blot analysis to assess levels of AMPK and p-AMPK proteins; or C) Cells were assayed for apoptosis as described in Materials and Methods. Columns, mean of three different experiments, each with duplicate samples; bars, SD. #, P<0.05, compared with TUSC2; ##, P<0.05, compared with TUSC2+MK2206.