Figure 2: SMBAs block Bax phosphorylation and enhance apoptosis.

(a) A549 cells were metabolically labelled with [³²P]orthophosphoric acid and treated with nicotine (1 μM) in the absence or presence of 5 μM of SMBA1, SMBA2 or SMBA3 for 60 min. Bax phosphorylation was determined by autoradiography (full blots can be found in Supplementary Fig. 6). (b) A549 cells were treated with cisplatin (40 μM), SMBA(s) (5 μM) or in combination in the absence or presence of nicotine (1 μM) for 48 h. Cell viability was analysed by PI-Annexin-V staining with FACS analysis. The error bars indicate ±s.d. of three separate experiments.