Fig. 1

GSK3β inhibitors are one of the few drugs identified in this screen that are capable of inhibiting EMT. a Schematic of reporter system in MDA MB 231 reporter cells that were used to screen a panel of small-molecule drugs. In the assay, cells that have a mesenchymal-like phenotype express GFP (green), and those with epithelial cells express RFP (red). b The drugs shortlisted in the screen were validated using FACS. MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with three concentrations of all the three drugs (BIO, TWS119, and LiCl), and the proportion of red (epithelial cells) and green (mesenchymal cells) cells were plotted (Additional file 3: Figure S1) and summarized using a heatmap showing the changes in the proportions of epithelial cells and mesenchymal cells upon treatment with indicated inhibitor. c Western blot of extracts of HMLE-Snail, HMLE-Twist, and SUM159 cells treated with indicated inhibitors or DMSO and stained for fibronectin (FN), FOXC2, and β-catenin. β-Actin was used as loading control. d Expression of mesenchymal and epithelial markers such as vimentin (VIM), fibronectin (FN), and E-cadherin (ECAD) were tested in HMLE-Snail, HMLE-Twist, and Sum159 cells treated with TWS119 or DMSO