Fig. 4

Paxlovid triggers evident ER stress in the ATDC5 cells. A Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes presented as a bubble chart. B Gene set enrichment analysis of genes involved in the KEGG biological process: Endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response. C Heatmap of mRNA expression of ER stress-related genes. D mRNA expression of ER stress-related genes when treated with different concentrations of Paxlovid. E, F Western blot with quantitative analysis of ER stress-related genes after treatment with Paxlovid. G Alcian blue and toluidine blue staining show the rescue effect of GSK2606414 on extracellular matrix protein secretion. H Western blot results reveal the rescue effect of GSK2606414 on the protein expression of Ddit3 and Sox9. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, and ****P < 0.0001