Interestingly, we have found that apoptotic

and autophagic cell death induced by DQQ was caspase-dependent. A universal caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, revert back the entire key event associated with DQQ mediated MOLT-4 cell death. Caspase inhibitor reversed cell growth inhibition and key protein expression of PARP-1, caspase-3, beclin1 and ATG7, which were induced by DQQ (Fig. 5A, B). These findings put forward the key role of caspases in the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. Therefore, HIF-1 pathway we can say that DQQ induce caspase dependant autophagy and intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis in human leukemic MOLT-4 cells. Furthermore, cytochrome c inhibition through siRNA, very significantly blocked the activity of DQQ in terms of viability, apoptosis and autophagy (Fig. 6A-C). However, we did not get such type of significant reversal effect by silencing the MOLT-4 cells through beclin1 siRNA (Fig. 7A, B). The MOLT-4 cell viability reversal effect of DQQ via cytochrome c siRNA was much higher than the caspase inhibitor and beclin1 siRNA. Interestingly, our study first time portrays the negative feedback control role of cytochrome c in the activation of autophagy. Thousands of publications revealed the role of cytochrome c in apoptosis induction, but none has described its role in autophagy induction, although there are evidences

see more suggesting the inhibitory role of cytochrome c on autophagy [12]. Furthermore, the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis was confirmed by silencing of beclin1 through siRNA. The results of the experiments revealed that beclin1 inhibition partially reversed the viability and the PARP-1 cleavage inhibition induced by DQQ; indicating the partial role of beclin1 in apoptosis. The experiment also confirmed the notion that autophagy and apoptosis induced by DQQ in MOLT-4 cells were interdependent. Much of the work has been done in the field of apoptosis and autophagy; however the relation between the two is still controversial and unexplored to some extent. In conclusion, the present Abiraterone molecular weight study briefly describes the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis induced by a novel

quinazolinone derivative, DQQ, in human leukemia MOLT-4 cells. It induces extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis, confirmed by apoptotic bodies’ formation, PS exposure, enhance sub-G0 population and induction of various apoptotic proteins like Bcl-2/Bax, PARP and caspase. We for the first time elucidated the negative feedback role of cytochrome c in autophagy induction. Hence, our discovery of this novel mechanism not only further insight the interdependent role of apoptosis and autophagy, but also disclose the clinical significance of agent like DQQ, that simultaneously induce apoptosis and autophagy. All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest in this study. ASP, SKG and AK thanks Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India for their research fellowships.