Ased on propidium iodide (Y-axis) and annexin V staining (X-axis) showed up to 28 and 46 of apoptosis was induced by MP470 alone and in combination with Erlotinib, respectively. (e). LNCaP cells were treated with the indicated doses of Erlotinib or MP470 or IM alone or the combinations for 48 hr, and PARP cleavage was determined by immunoblotting with anti-PARP antibody. -actin was used as a loading control. MP470 or MP470-Erlotinib but not Erlotinib or IM or Erlotinib-IM combination was shown to cause PARP cleavage in LNCaP cells.(1, 2, 5, 10 M) alone or in combination with Erlotinib for 48 hr. Apoptosis quantified by morphologic changes was induced in a dose-dependent manner and this effect was synergistic with Erlotinib (Fig. 1C). Treatment of LNCaP cells with either Erlotinib (10 M) or MP470 (10 M) induced 9 or 21 apoptosis respectively, while apoptosis with the combination, increased to 36 . These morphologic changes were confirmed by Annexin V staining and PARP cleavage assays (Fig. 1D and 1E) respectively. Because MP470 inhibits c-Kit and PDGFR RTKs, we evaluated Imatinib Mesylate (IM), a well-established c-Kit and PDGFR TKI. IM had an IC50 of 12 M in LNCaP cells[35] similar to that observed for Erlotinib alone. Interestingly, IM did not induce apoptosis in LNCaP cells either alone or in combination with Erlotinib (Fig. 1E). This implies that c-Kit and PDGFR do not play a role in protecting apoptosis and that MP470 inhibits LNCaP cells by a mechanism independent of c-Kit and PDGFR. In order to glean whether MP470 inhibits cell cycle progression, we treated the lung cancer cell line A549 and two prostate cell lines, LNCaP and PC-3 with DMSO, 10 M of Erlotinib, MP470, IM or combinations for 32 hr. The cells were then left unsynchronized or synchronized at thePage 5 of(page number not for citation purposes)BMC Cancer 2009, 9:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/9/mitotic phase by nocodazole for 16 hr. Cell cycle progression analyzed by flow cytometry (Fig. 2) showed that MP470 induced G1 arrest in A549 and LNCaP cells as they cannot be synchronized in G2/M by nocodazole compared to DMSO control. However, MP470 did not induce G1 arrest in PC-3 cells, Lurbinectedin solubility implicating that this arrest is cell line specific. In addition, consistent with the above apoptosis data, we also observed a sub-G1 population in cells treated with Erlotinib plus MP470 (Fig. 2). Together, our PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25962748 data indicate that MP470 has inhibitory effects on cell growth and cell cycle progression, promotes apoptosis and that these effects are enhanced by Erlotinib.A combination of MP470 and Erlotinib causes a further decrease in Akt activity compared with MP470 alone Since MP470 or MP470 plus Erlotinib inhibited LNCaP cell survival, we evaluated whether MP470 or MP470 plus Erlotinib could inhibit Akt activation. As shown in figure 3A, Akt activity (as measured by phosphorylation on Ser473) was significantly reduced by 10 M MP470 alone but was not reduced by Erlotinib or IM. Moreover, MP470 plus Erlotinib completely abolished Akt phosphorylation in LNCaP cells with an unchanged total protein level ofAkt. It has been reported that PI3K and Akt activities are increased following androgen deprivation [32], and activation of this pathway plays an essential role in the androgen-refractory progression of prostate cancer by enhanced cell proliferation and survival [30]. To further determine whether MP470 or combination with Erlotinib continues to inhibit Akt activity after androgen dep.