Example 5
ECE-1 converts biologically inactive big ET-1 into the biologically active ET-1 peptide. Thus, over-expression of ECE-1 can lead to increased production of ET-1. Peripheral blood derived macrophages from the above described ethnic groups were treated as described above. ECE-1 mRNA was detected using real time quantitative PCR and normalized against 18s rRNA. Differences in macrophage ECE-1 mRNA expression between ethnic and treatment groups are shown in
HIV Nef induced the greatest amount of ECE-1 mRNA in African American HIV positive macrophages, which was significantly higher than all the other groups (P<0.02). Macrophages from African American HIV positive and HIVAN patients had significantly increased ECE-1 mRNA expression when cultured in media only or treated with HIV Nef (P<0.02 and P<0.001, respectively) compared to the healthy controls and Caucasian HIV positive patients. LPS treatment did not significantly increase ECE-1 mRNA in any groups when compared to the other treatments. No significant differences were found between the Caucasian HIV positive patients responses and the healthy group. HIV gp120 did not induce any detectable ECE-1 mRNA from any of the macrophages (data not shown).
