Fig. 5: Pharmacologic inhibition of MAPK1 by ulixertinib reduces 3D growth in vitro and tumor growth in vivo.
From: Genes driving three-dimensional growth of immortalized cells and cancer
a Immunoblot showing treatment of UMUC3 and UMUC6 cells with the MAPK1 specific drug, ulixertinib, leads to decreased total MAPK1 protein, as well as decreased activated/phosphorylated MAPK1 protein (p-MAPK1), but no decrease on its homolog MAPK3. b Growth curves showing UMUC3 or UMUC6 cells treated with ulixertinib experience significant reduction in growth, relative DMSO treatment control, even at the lowest dose of drug. c HBLAK cell line treated with ulixertinib experiences significant reduction in 3D growth, compared to the DMSO treatment control, even at the lowest dose of drug, but at day 14. The scale bar is 3400 µm. d Line graph illustrating the reduction in growth of HBLAK cells after ulixertinib treatment at different timepoints. e HBLAK spheroid area, calculated from the spheroids shown in the previous figure (c) as well as the other biological replicates (not shown here), is plotted after ulixertinib treatment at different time points. f Schematic showing the xenograft generation and ulixertinib treatment strategy in mice (n = 5). g Growth curves of UMUC3 and UMUC6 xenografts with ulixertinib treatment/shMAPK1 resulted in dramatic reductions, and in some case complete disappearance of UMUC3 and UMUC6 tumors.
