Fig. 5: Lovastatin inhibits the growth of OXPHOS subtype PDGCs by attenuating mitochondrial respiration.

a Cell viability of lovastatin-treated BNI423 supplemented with different concentrations of cholesterol (biological replicates n = 3). EtOH: ethyl alcohol. Data are presented as mean ± SD. b Cell viability of lovastatin-treated BNI423 supplemented with different concentrations of lanosterol (biological replicates n = 3). Data are presented as mean ± SD. c GSEA plot of OXPHOS subtype PDGCs treated with lovastatin compared to PDGCs without lovastatin treatment. GSEA is performed by R package clusterProfiler. P-value was calculated by the two-sided Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and adjusted by FDR. d Representative MitoTracker staining of BNI423 under different treatments for 16 h. The mitochondria were stained with MitoTracker (red), and the nucleus was stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar, 10 μm. e Relative cellular ADP/ATP ratio of BNI423 under different treatments (biological replicates n = 3). The mitochondrial complex I inhibitor rotenone was used as a positive control. P-values were calculated by the two-sided Student’s t-test. Lov.: Lovastatin. Data are presented as mean ± SD. f Relative cellular ADP/ATP ratio of lovastatin-treated BNI423 with or without cholesterol supplementation (biological replicates n = 3). P-values were calculated using the two-sided Student’s t-test. Lov.: Lovastatin, Cho.: Cholesterol. Data are presented as mean ± SD. g Tumor size of mice with subcutaneously inoculated BNI17 (n = 6) treated with lovastatin or vehicle. P-values were calculated using the two-sided Student’s t-test. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. h, i Quantification of Ki67- (h) and cleaved Caspase-3-stained (i) brain tumor tissues. BNI423 were transplanted into the brains of nude mice. After five weeks, lovastatin was administered by brain infusion (42 μg per day per mouse) for three days, and the whole brains were harvested for histopathologic analysis. P-values were calculated using the two-sided Student’s t-test. Data are presented as mean ± SD. In (h), Vehicle (n = 9), Lovastatin (n = 9). In (I), Vehicle (n = 6), Lovastatin (n = 9). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.