Cocaine-mediated dysregulated autophagy involves upstream activation of
ER stress in HBVP. Representative western blots showing the protein levels of
BiP (A), ATF 6 (B), IRE 1α (C), p-PERK/ PERK (D), p-EIF/ EIF (E), BECN1
(F), LC3B-II (G) and p62 (H) in HBVP pretreated with 100 nM wortmannin for 1 h
followed by 10 μM cocaine exposure for 12 h. (I) RT-qPCR showing relative
expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL 1β and
IL 6 mRNA in HBVP pretreated with 100 nM wortmannin for 1 h followed by 10
μM cocaine exposure for 6 h. Data are presented as mean ± SEM; the
mean is derived from 6 independent experiments (n = 6). Abbreviations: Coc:
Cocaine, Wort.: wortmannin. One-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc test
was used to determine the statistical significance: *, P<0.05 vs.
control; #, P<0.05 vs. cocaine.