Figure 7.

Synergistic effect of paroxetine on cell death induction by anticancer drugs. (A) Effect of anticancer drugs on the death of MCF-7 cells. MCF-7 ells were treated with an anticancer drug (doxorubicin (doxo, 0.1 μg/mL), 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu, 0.5 μg/mL), or taxol (0.1 μg/mL)) and/or paroxetine (30 μM) for 12 h. Cell viability was determined by an MTT assay; (B) Cell death of MCF-7 cells induced by paroxetine and doxorubicin treatment. Cells were treated with the indicated concentrations of doxo and/or paro for 12 h or 24h. * p < 0.05 compared to each corresponding control untreated with drugs. ^† p < 0.05 compared to group treated with only anticancer drug of same concentration; (C) High increase in apoptotic cell death in the combination of paroxetine and doxorubicin. The apoptotic cells were quantified by the FACS analysis with Annexin V-FITC and PI after 30 μM paroxetine treatment for 12 h. * p < 0.05 compared to the control. ^† p < 0.05 compared to the paroxetine treatment. Each bar is the mean ± SD obtained from three independent experiments. ‘Paro’ represents paroxetine.