Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 20 pp 8221—8242

Figure 11. ER stress signaling plays a key role in facilitating autophagy and protein degradation in neuronal cells. Upper Graphs. HCN2 cells and BV2 cells were transfected with a scrambled siRNA or with an siRNA to knock down the expression of eIF2α and were co-transfected with a plasmid to express LC3-GFP-RFP. After 24h, cells were treated with vehicle control, AR12 (2 μM), neratinib (50 nM) or the drugs in combination for 4h and 8h. The mean number of intense staining GFP+RFP+ and RFP+ punctae per cell was determined (n = 3 +/-SD) # p < 0.05 greater than vehicle control; ## p < 0.05 greater than AR12 alone value; † p < 0.05 less than corresponding value in siSCR cells; ∞ p < 0.05 greater than corresponding value at the 4h timepoint. Lower Tables. HCN2 cells were transfected with plasmids to express Tau or APP and co-transfected with a scrambled siRNA or with an siRNA molecule to knock down the expression of eIF2α. After 24h, cells were treated with vehicle control, AR12 (2 μM), neratinib (50 nM) or the drugs in combination for 6h. Cells were fixed in place and immunostaining performed to determine the expression of Tau, APP and ERK2. (n = 3 +/-SD) * p < 0.05 less than vehicle control; ¶ p < 0.05 greater than corresponding value in siSCR cells.