Expression and characterization of the chemokine receptor CCR2B from rhesus monkey.

Species selectivity of chemokine receptor antagonists is a potential deterrent to making preclinical assessments in vivo. To determine if rhesus monkey disease models could support these assessments, we pharmacologically and functionally characterized recombinant rhesus CCR2B receptor. For these studies we obtained the CCR2B coding region by PCR from genomic rhesus DNA and expressed the receptor as stable transfectants in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells.