Pharmacological activation of autophagy favors the clearing of intracellular aggregates of misfolded prion protein peptide to prevent neuronal death

a Flow cytometry analysis of cell death. Dead cells in the culture were quantified after 24 and 48？h of treatment with PBS (vehicle) or PrP90-231 (100 and 500？nM), by measuring the percent of cells that incorporate SYTOX green. * P？<？0.05 vs. vehicle. b Cell viability was quantified in control cells after 48 and 72？h (treatment with PBS, 0 on abscissae) or PrP90-231 (1 and 5？μM) measuring the percent of live cells by Trypan blue exclusion test. *P？<？0.05 and **P？<？0.01 vs. PBS. c Mitochondrial viability of A1 cells was evaluated by MTT-reduction assay after 72？h of treatment with PBS (0 on abscissae) and PrP90-231 at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 10？μM. *P？<？0.05 and **P？<？0.01 vs. PBS. d Phase-contrast pictures of A1 cells that have been treated with PrP90-231 5？μM for two (middle panel) and four (lower panel) days in comparison with untreated (upper panel). Images has been acquired with C- plan 10？×？/0.22 magnification lens. Bar 100？μm. All the data are reported as mean？+？/？ SEM of three independent experiments each performed in quadruplicat