Fig. 2

SAHA and metformin worked synergistically to inhibit TNBC. A The DTSyn algorithm calculated the drug synergy probability between Metformin and SAHA/Vorinostat in breast cancer cell lines. B Sensitivity scores for the drug combination (Metformin and Vorinostat/Zolinza [SAHA]) across different breast cancer subtypes. The heatmap on the left displayed the sensitivity of various breast cancer cell lines to the drug combination, the bar chart in the middle showed the average sensitivity score for each breast cancer subtype, and the definitions of the five sensitivity scores were provided on the right. C The percentage inhibition (up panel) and CI (down panel) at each concentration of the drugs were presented. MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with SAHA, metformin, or both at the concentrations as indicated. D The colony formation assay and its quantification of MDA-MB-231 cells treated with SAHA, metformin, or their combination were presented. MDA-MB-231 cells (1,000 per well) were seeded into six-well plates and treated after 24 h with varying concentrations of SAHA, metformin, or their combination. After 14 days, colonies were stained with crystal violet, quantified using ImageJ, and plotted with GraphPad Prism 7.0. All experiments were performed in triplicate. Error bars represented means ± SD from triplicates. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001