Cell Culture and Compound Treatment Protocol

A549 cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 and Panc 1 cells were cultured in DMEM, supplemented with 10% (v/v) FBS and 1% (v/v) antibiotic-antimycotic solution (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) at 37 °C in a humidified incubator containing 5% CO₂. MPT0L145 was synthesized by Dr. Jing-ping Liou according to previous publications [17 (link)] and is covered by PCT/US2016/043203 filed on 20 July 2016. Gefitinib, gemcitabine and paclitaxel were purchased from Cayman Chemical (Ann Arbor, MI, USA). 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) was obtained from Sigma Chemical Corp (St. Louis, MO, USA). Antibodies against various proteins were obtained from the following sources: caspase-3, LC3B from Novus biologicals (Littleton, CO, USA); β-catenin, EGFR, PARP, pAKT, AKT, pErk and Erk from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA, USA) and PIK3C3 and GAPDH from Genetex (Irvine, CA, USA).