Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
5
pubmed:dateCreated
2010-4-20
pubmed:abstractText
Burkholderia pseudomallei is a soil bacterium that is endemic in southeast Asia and northern Australia and that can cause both acutely lethal pneumonia and chronic systemic infections in humans. The effective treatment of infection with B. pseudomallei requires rapid diagnosis and prolonged treatment with high doses of antimicrobials, and even with appropriate antibiotic therapy, patient relapses are common. Thus, new approaches to the treatment of B. pseudomallei infections are needed. In the present study, we asked whether active immunotherapy with gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), a key cytokine regulating the intracellular replication of B. pseudomallei, could increase the effectiveness of conventional antimicrobial therapy for B. pseudomallei infection. Macrophage infection assays and in vivo pulmonary challenge models were used to assess the inhibitory effects of combined treatment with IFN-gamma and ceftazidime on B. pseudomallei infection. We found that treatment with even very low doses of IFN-gamma and ceftazidime elicited strong synergistic inhibition of B. pseudomallei growth within infected macrophages. In vivo, active immunotherapy markedly potentiated the effectiveness of low-dose ceftazidime therapy for the treatment of infected mice in a pulmonary challenge model of B. pseudomallei. Combined treatment was associated with a significant reduction in the bacterial burden and a significant lessening of bacterial dissemination. We concluded, therefore, that immunotherapy with either endogenous or exogenous IFN-gamma could significantly increase the effectiveness of conventional antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of acute B. pseudomallei infection.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:commentsCorrections
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
May
pubmed:issn
1098-6596
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
54
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1785-92
pubmed:dateRevised
2010-11-2
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2010
pubmed:articleTitle
Immunotherapy markedly increases the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy for treatment of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural