Fig. 3. Validation of cytotoxicity of single or combinations of simvastatin, digoxin, metformin and paclitaxel to PDAC cells.
Simvastatin and digoxin were compared to their respective chemical statin and cardiac glycoside analogs (A). Dose courses of simvastatin, metformin and digoxin were performed on PANC1, Mia PaCa2, PDCL5 and PDCL15 cell lines (B). Dose courses of chemotherapeutic drugs were carried out in PANC1 (C) and Mia PaCa2 (D) cells. Drug combinations of 3 non-chemo-drugs (C3) largely contributed to cytotoxicity of PDAC cells through additive, synergistic or complementary effects (D). C3 combined with paclitaxel, not gemcitabine, resulted in significant cell death as compared to C3 alone in all cells except PDCL5 (p < 0.05) (E). GLuc reporter assay showed that BIRC5-SP was more sensitive to respond to C3 treatment as compared to BIRC5-EP (p < 0.05) (F).