FIGURE 2.

Autophagic inhibitor 3-MA enhanced the Zn-CuO NPs induced cell death in both AsPC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cells. Quantification of autophagy was detected by flow cytometry for AsPC-1 (A) and MIA PaCa-2 cancer cells (B) as described in the Section “Materials and Methods.” Cells were treated with Zn-CuO NPs alone or the combination of Zn-CuO NPs and 3-MA. The relative cell viability in AsPC-1 (C) and MIA PaCa-2 (D) cancer cells was determined using MTS assay as described in the Section “Materials and Methods” (t-test, ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001).