Fig. 1

BET inhibitor JQ1 differentially affects the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism. A Proliferation rate of MDA-MB231, Hs578t, BT549, and MCF7 cells with two doses of JQ1 (0,5 μM and 1 μM). B Proliferation rate at day 3 represented as a percentage of the cell number rate in A. C Immunoblotting for p21 in MDA-MB231, Hs578t, BT549 and MCF7 cells after treatment with CNT or JQ1 for 24 hours. bACT served as a loading control. D Cell cycle analysis of MDA-MB231, Hs578t, BT549 and MCF7 cells treated with 1 μM JQ1 for 24 hours. BrdU and PI incorporation indicated the % of population. Here, we plotted the % of cell population in all the three different phases of the cell cycle. The significance is calculated versus the CNT treated cells. E Percentage of cell death in MDA-MB231 and Hs578t cells treated with 1 μM JQ1 for 1 day (1d) or 3 days (3d) with Annexin V staining. The significance is calculated versus the CNT treated cells. F RNA-seq analysis of MDA-MB231 treated for 6 hours with 1 μM of JQ1. The volcano plot represents the differentially regulated genes (red = significant, black = not significant), on the right are the upregulated, while on the left are the downregulated genes. G Top 5 GO (gene ontology) categories of upregulated genes analyzed with STRING. The Metabolic pathway category denotes the 25% of genes directly related to lipid metabolism. On the STRING network, different colors discriminate the diverse lipid metabolic process category: in purple the Inositol phosphate metabolism; in blue the Cholesterol biosynthesis; in yellow the Fatty acid metabolism Biosynthesis; in red the Glycerol lipid metabolism and green the Sphingolipid metabolism. H Genes in the “lipid metabolic process” identified by RNA-seq plotted for the log2 fold change value. In orange, the genes were selected for further analysis with a log2 ≥ 1. I Validation of the selected genes in panel C by RT-qPCR analysis