Figure 2
Effect of saquinavir on hTERT expression. A. Representative experiment showing the effect of saquinavir (15 μM) on hTERT expression tested on whole cell extracts from 2×106 viable CD4+ Jurkat cells 48 h following treatment (Western Blot). Gel loading control was based on GAPDH expression. Saquinavir increases hTERT levels in Jurkat cells. B. Graph shows the mean ± SD of the ratio hTERT/GAPDH band intensity obtained by pooling the results from 3 independent experiments. C. Representative gel showing the effect of saquinavir on hTERT mRNA in Jurkat cell line, determined after 24 and 48 h of treatment, using RT-PCR. GAPDH was used as internal control. Saquinavir up-regulates hTERT mRNA transcription. D. Graphs show the mean ± SD of OD for 3 independent RT-PCR experiments. E. Effect of saquinavir on hTERT mRNA expression of Jurkat cells 24 hours following treatment analysed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Levels of hTERT are normalized against GAPDH housekeeping expression. The graph shows the difference in terms of gene expression working out the Delta Delta CT algorithm between TERT and the housekeeping GAPDH. Data shown are representative of 2 independent experiments. All p values were calculated using one-way paired Student’s t-test. Asterisk indicates p < 0.05.