Immunotherapy markedly increases the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy for treatment of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection.

ABSTRACT: 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

SUBMITTER: Propst KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2863600 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature