Prevention of the post-chemotherapy relapse of tuberculous infection by combined immunotherapy.

Abstract	We report that a recently developed combined immunotherapy (CIT) has the capacity to prevent a spontaneous relapse of replicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli in the lungs of BALB/c, C57Bl/6 or C3H/HeJ strains of mice, following 4weeks of non-sterilising treatment with isoniazid and rifampicin. The CIT regimen, represented by recombinant IFNgamma, anti-alpha crystalline monoclonal IgA antibody and IL-4 neutralizing polyclonal antibody, reduced the 8-week relapse of viable bacterial counts in the lungs most significantly, when CIT was inoculated during the 5th week post infection, i.e. during the 3rd week of chemotherapy. Although CIT enhanced lung granuloma area, nitric oxide, cytokine and chemokine levels in lung washings significantly, these could not be directly associated with the beneficial effect of CIT on the degree of relapse in the lungs. These results represent a proof-of-principle, that the described CIT, when combined with chemotherapy, could have potential for future development of a shorter regimen of tuberculosis treatment.
Authors	Simona Buccheri, Rajko Reljic, Nadia Caccamo, Serena Meraviglia, Juraj Ivanyi, Alfredo Salerno, Francesco Dieli
Journal	Tuberculosis (Edinburgh, Scotland) (Tuberculosis (Edinb)) Vol. 89 Issue 1 Pg. 91-4 (Jan 2009) ISSN: 1873-281X [Electronic] Scotland
PMID	18986840 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
Chemical References	Adjuvants, Immunologic Antibodies Antitubercular Agents Immunoglobulin A Recombinant Proteins alpha-Crystallins alpha-crystallin 2, Mycobacterium tuberculosis Interleukin-4 Interferon-gamma
Topics	Adjuvants, Immunologic (therapeutic use) Animals Antibodies (therapeutic use) Antitubercular Agents (therapeutic use) Colony Count, Microbial Combined Modality Therapy Immunoglobulin A (therapeutic use) Immunotherapy (methods) Interferon-gamma (therapeutic use) Interleukin-4 (immunology) Male Mice Mice, Inbred BALB C Mice, Inbred C3H Mice, Inbred C57BL Models, Animal Mycobacterium tuberculosis Recombinant Proteins Recurrence Tuberculosis, Pulmonary (drug therapy, therapy) alpha-Crystallins (immunology)

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