About the Authors

Hui Zhi

Affiliation Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Ivan Luptak

Affiliation Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Gaurav Alreja

Affiliation Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jianru Shi

Current address: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Keck School of medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Affiliation Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jian Guan

Affiliation Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Nicole Metes-Kosik

Affiliation VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jacob Joseph

jjoseph16@partners.org

Affiliations VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury, Massachusetts, United States of America, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

The work was supported by a resarch grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Joseph has received research grants from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures the drug aliskiren, used in this study. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JJ HZ IL NM-K. Performed the experiments: HZ NM-K GA JS JG IL. Analyzed the data: JJ NM-K IL GA HZ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JS JG. Wrote the paper: HZ JJ.