Figure 2
Influence of DNA vaccines based immunotherapy on the duration of chemotherapy.
Mice were infected with 50–100 CFU of M.tuberculosis. Four weeks after the infection, chemotherapy was initiated as described in figure 1 and was continued for 12 weeks. At 4, 8 and 12 weeks after infection, the mice were also immunized intramuscularly with 100 μg of either of the following: DNAacr, DNAsod or DNAvec in conjunction with chemotherapy. One group of mice was treated with the chemotherapy alone. Number of viable bacilli in lungs was determined after 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks of treatment by plating the lung homogenates on MB7H11 agar. (A) Treatment and sampling schedule. (B) Bacillary enumeration after 4 weeks of treatment. (C, inset) Bacillary enumeration after 8 weeks of treatment. (D) Bacillary enumeration after 12 weeks of treatment. The log10 CFU results are pooled values from two experiments expressed as mean ± SE. In each experiment 5 mice were used per group. The data was analyzed by student's unpaired t-test, two-tailed (***p < 0.001 and *p < 0.05). Arrows indicate the number of animals with undetectable bacilli in lungs.
