Fig. 4: miR-23a-5p targets autophagic flux and autophagy inhibitors can overcome stroma mediated protection to ATO.

a Autophagy is regulated by TLR2 – knock down of TLR2 gene in NB4 resulted in downregulation of genes (LC3, Beclin1, ATG12) involved in autophagy pathway (n = 3). b Expression (MFI) of TLR2 on NB4 cells which are surviving (Annexin V-/7AAD-) post ATO exposure (2 µM) in the presence of stromal cells shows increased expression of TLR2 (n = 3) compared to controls. c Transient knock down of TLR2 sensitized the NB4 cells to ATO even in the presence of stromal cells; viability assay was performed using AnnexinV and 7AAD (n = 3). d Correlation of expression of TLR2 in APL patients to relapse. Expression of TLR2 (normalized with actin-housekeeping) were compared to NB4 cell-line, suggesting higher expression of TLR2 in patients who had relapsed compared to patients who had not relapsed). Statistical significance was calculated using Student’s t-test (two tailed t-test) and the values are denoted as mean ± SD. The P-values are denoted as *P = 0.02, **P = 0.005, ***P < 0.001