Fig. 5

Statins suppress Twist promoter activity by indirectly reducing L-HDAg prenylation. a The pXP2-Twist reporter was co-transfected into Huh7 cells with L-HDAg, L-C211S, S-HDAg, or pcDNA3 control vector and treated with 5 or 25 μM atorvastatin for 72 h. Luciferase activities were measured and normalized relative to pCMV-β gal activity value. L-HDAg of all genotypes lost the ability to activate Twist promoter following atorvastatin treatment. Vector, L-C211S, and S-HDAg were negative controls and did not activate Twist promoter. Results shown are based on four independent experiments. *: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01. b Inhibitory effects of five other statins on Twist promoter activity. Cells were transfected as in (a), and then treated with 5 or 25 μM fluvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin. Luciferase activities were measured. Results shown are based on five independent experiments. *: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01