Fig. 1: DSF/Cu + IR induces cellular stress responses in target cancer cells in vitro.

a The heatmap shows ER stress, oxidative stress, chemical stress, and heat shock stress-related gene expression between vehicle-treated SUM159 tumor cells vs. DSF/Cu+IR-treated SUM159 tumor cells (n = 3 biologically independent experiments). b Representative GSEA enrichment plot illustrates the “INTERFERON_GAMMA_RESPONSE” and “REACTIVE_OXYGEN_SPECIES” (GSEA-computed P-values and false-discovery rate). c Western blot analysis of ER stress-related gene-encoded proteins IRE1α, p-IRE1α and eIF2α, p-eIF2α after indicated treatments (n = 3 independent experiments). d Detection by qRT-PCR of DSF/Cu+IR-induced ER stress indicator spliced XBP1(XBP1s) mRNA and its downstream target genes ERdj4, P58IPK in SUM159 cells. Fold-changes are shown as mean ± SD (n = 3 independent experiments). e Bulk cell RNA-seq shows the upregulation of pro-inflammatory chemokine and cytokine genes in DSF/Cu+IR-stressed SUM159 cells (n = 3 biologically independent experiments). f The percentage of TRAILR1 positive cells and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) values of TRAILR2 (SUM149 and PANC-1) after indicated treatments (n = 3 independent experiments). g The MFI values of B7-H3/CSPG4 expression on PANC-1/PCI-13 cells 24 h post indicated treatments (n = 3 independent experiments). Statistical comparisons were performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (d, f, g). P-values are shown and error bars indicate mean ± SD. ns represents no significant difference. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.