Figure 10.

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein cleaving enzyme, furin, was reduced in MCT exposed in lung homogenates of male mice. After the three-day acute exposure to MCT, VEA, and cartridge aerosols, the abundance of ACE2, furin, and TMPRSS2 proteins were determined in mouse lung homogenates by immunoblotting assay. (A) Immunoblots for Ace2, furin, TMPRSS2, and β-actin. (B) Data represented as fold-change ± SEM * p < 0.05 vs. air. p > 0.05 were considered insignificant and were not denoted with asterisks (one-way ANOVA, n = 3/group). The same blot was probed for ACE2, TMPRSS2, Furin, and SP-A. Thus, the same beta-actin band (for males) appears in both Figure 7 (SP-A) and Figure 10 (SARS-Cov-2 related proteins).