Fig. 6

ROS-dependent AKT activation mediates chemotherapeutic drug-induced elevation of ACE2 in breast cancer cells through regulation of HIF-1α. A Western blot analysis of the expression of AKT and p-AKT in MDA-468 cells treated with EPI, NAC, H₂O₂ or EPI + NAC. B Inhibition of AKT phosphorylation by MK2206 completely blocked the expression of ACE2 and HIF-1α in EPI-induced breast cancer cells. C Western blot and D qRT-PCR showed that the expression levels of HIF-1α and ACE2 were downregulated in resistant breast cancer cells after inhibition of AKT phosphorylation. The numbers below the bands refer to the intensity of the relative grayscale values. β-actin was also used as the internal reference for qRT-PCR analysis