Figure 2. MK001 inhibition of PBMC proliferation is dose dependent.

For all assays, a single dose of MK001 was added at culture initiation and compared to parallel cultures treated with a single dose of MK001 vehicle (DMSO or EtOH). Freshly isolated PBMC were tested in quadruplicate for proliferative responses to plate-bound anti-CD3 (10 μg/mL) (A, B) or PHA (1.6 μg/mL) (C, D) stimulation measured at 24 hours using ³H-thymidine incorporation. Results are shown as mean cpm incorporated in cultures treated with MK001 at various doses (black bars) or with the corresponding vehicle control (Ethanol or DMSO, open bars). Gray bars represent proliferation of PBMC stimulated with anti-CD3 or PHA alone. Error bars indicate 1 standard deviation among 4 replicates for each condition. PBMC for representative dose response experiments shown were obtained from HCV-infected (A) and HCV-uninfected (C) subjects. Similar dose response results were obtained in 5 additional HCV-infected and 1 additional HCV-uninfected subjects. Results from individual HCV-infected and uninfected subjects tested with MK001 (20 μg/mL) are also shown (B, D). Results from MK001-treated samples were statistically different from vehicle-treated samples (Wilcoxon matched pairs test, p=0.03 for anti-CD3 or PHA separately).