Fig. 5.

Small molecule inhibitors of GRP78 induce apoptosis and reduce cancer cell viability bearing mutant KRAS alleles. (A) A427, HCT116, and PANC-1 cells were treated with either DMSO, HA15 (10μM) or YUM70 (10μM) for 48 hr. Images from phase contrast microscopy are shown. Scale bars represent 20μM. (B) Same as in (A) except the cells were harvested and whole cell lysate was subjected to Western blot analysis for cleaved PARP (c-PARP), cleaved Caspase-7 (c-Cas 7), and CHOP protein levels with GAPDH serving as loading control. (C) A427, HCT116, PANC-1, H460, LS180, and CFPAC-1 cells were treated with either DMSO or HA15 (10μM) for 48 hr and cell viability was measured by WST-1 assay. The experiment was repeated 4 times for each cell line. The relative percentage of cell viability was quantified in the graphs. (D) Same as in (C) except the cells were treated with DMSO or YUM70 (10μM). Data are presented as mean ± S.D. * P ≤ 0.05, ** P ≤ 0.01, *** P ≤ 0.001, ns: not significant (Student's t test).