Fig 6. Hypothetical model of VES autophagy mechanism in human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells.
VES induced the suppression of both Akt and p38 MAPK, and up-regulated AMPK, leading to the inhibition of mTOR activity. And downstream regulators p70S6K and 4E-BP-1 were suppressed consequently, resulting in autophagy in SGC-7901 cells. VES cooperated with autophagy inhibitors to induce increased anticancer effect compared with VES alone.