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Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) exhibits anticancer activities in a variety of cancer cells, but DHA alone are not effective enough for cancer therapy. In this study we found the stress-regulated protein p8 was obviously increased after DHA treatment in several cancer cells, which further to induce autophagy by the upregulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress-related protein ATF4 and CHOP. Furthermore, when we silenced p8 by siRNA in cancer cells, the apoptosis induced by DHA were notably increased, whereas the overexpression of p8 in cancer cells leaded to the resistance to DHA-induced apoptosis. Moreover, we found the inhibition of autophagy with chloroquine (CQ) can enhance the anticancer effect of DHA both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, we found that p8-mediated autophagy attenuates DHA-induced apoptosis in cancer cells, which provides evidence to support the use p8 as a cancer therapeutic target, and suggests that the combination treatment with DHA and autophagy inhibitor might be an effective cancer therapeutic strategy.

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