The peptides’ effect on the expression of different inflammatory genes or airway epithelial cells-related genes after peptide administration at 0.1 mg/kg to non-infected or infected mice was determined, as indicated. Briefly, total mRNA was isolated from the right lung tissues using Trizol reagent. Quantitative PCR was performed using ABI 7900HT (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and primers of all genes tested including IL-6, IL-10, Tnf-α, Nf-κb, Muc5b, Foxj1. Validation tests were performed to confirm equivalent PCR efficiencies for the target genes. Test and calibrator lung RNAs were reverse transcribed using a high-capacity cDNA reverse transcription kit (Life Technologies) and PCR was amplified as follows: 50 °C for 2 min, 95 °C for 10 min, 40 cycles; 95 °C for 15 s; 60 °C for 1 min. Three replicates were used to calculate the average cycle threshold for the transcript of interest and for a transcript for normalization (β-glucuronidase; Assays on Demand; Applied Biosystems). Relative mRNA abundance was calculated using the ΔΔ cycle threshold (Ct) method.