Figure 4

Comparison of the influence of the wt gp41, gp41 with mutations (2A or 6A) and the isu peptide on cytokine release and gene expression. (A) IL-10 release from PBMCs of donor 4 after exposure to 18 ng/well of two gp41 mutants (Q2A and L6A) or wt gp41 (light gray), or 12.5 μg/ml isu peptide homopolymer (dark gray). IL-10 was measured in the supernatant by ELISA. Mock supernatants were obtained from 293 cells transfected with the backbone vector. (B) Activation of IL-6 and (C) MMP-1 transcription as measured by real-time RT-PCR. (D) Down regulation of FCN1 expression as measured by real-time PCR and presented as% of the expression induced by the isu peptide. PBMCs were from donor 4.