Fig. 1.

BET inhibitors increase the growth suppressive effects of AKT inhibitor (AKTi). a, b Breast cancer cell lines were treated with BET inhibitors (JQ1 or MS417, 1 μM) or AKTi (MK2206, AZD5363, and GSK690693, 1 μM), or in combination for 96 h. The growth suppressive effects were measured by either cell count (a) or MTT analyses (b). Data presented are representative of three experiments performed in quadruplicate as the mean ± SD. ^*/^□/^⁑ p < 0.01 when treatment group containing JQ1 or MS417 plus either MK2206 (*), or AZD5363 (□), or GSK690693 (⁑) is compared with the corresponding group with single inhibitor. c Expression of BRD4 family members was knocked down by siRNA in breast cancer cell lines, followed by treatment with various inhibitors (1 μM) for 96 h as described above. The growth suppressive effects were reflected by cell count assay. NTC stands for non-target control of siRNA (scramble). Data presented are representative of three experiments performed in triplicate as the mean ± SD. ^*/^‡/^⁑ p < 0.01 when group with BRD4-knockdown plus either MK2206 (*), or AZD5363 (^‡), or GSK690693 (⁑) is compared with other knockdown groups in combination with same inhibitor