Fig. 5

Combinations of nelfinavir and nitroxoline, with or without erlotinib, affect cell cycle in AsPC-1, Capan-2 and BxPC-3. The histograms show the mean percentage of cells in the different cell cycle phases after 72 h of treatment with low (a, c and e, left), or high concentrations (b, d and f, left) of nitroxoline and nelfinavir in combinations with or without erlotinib. Data are the means ± SD of two independent flow cytometry experiments. The expression of cyclin D3 and cyclin B1 proteins was analyzed by western blot (a-f, right) in cells treated for 48 h with vehicle, or drug combinations, as indicated. *Statistically significant differences as compared to the corresponding value of vehicle (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01). The mean percentages of hypodiploid cells (identified as apoptotic sub-G1 population) following treatment are reported in the Additional file 2: Table S2