MEK1/2 inhibitor, selumetinib sensitizes GC-resistant ALL cells to dexamethasone.

<p>(A) GC-resistant cells exhibit coordinate upregulation of MAPK/ERK pathway components. GSEA plots show relative upregulation of MAPK/ERK cascade components in GC-resistant ALL cells in two independent datasets [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0155893#pone.0155893.ref025" target="_blank">25</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0155893#pone.0155893.ref026" target="_blank">26</a>]. Relative expression of pathway components is visualized by the heat map. FDR- false discovery rate. (B) ALL cell lines with active MAPK/ERK pathway (SEMK2, 697, CCRF-CEM) and ALL cells with undetectable expression of MAPK/ERK pathway (RS4;11) were incubated for 4h with MEK1/2 inhibitor, selumetinib (SEL, 200 nM). Thereafter, phosphorylation status of ERK1/2 and its substrate p90RSK were assessed by immunoblotting. (C) ALL cell lines were incubated with DEX (0.05 μg/ml 2 μg/ml and 30 μg/ml), SEL (200 nM) or combination of DEX+SEL for 72h and cell death was assessed by annexinV/PI staining followed by flow cytometry analysis. * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ns- not significant. Error bars represent SD of three independent experiment. P values were calculated using Student’s t-test. (D) Cells were incubated as in (C) and used to determine the phosphorylation status of ERK1/2 by immunoblotting.