Because B. parapertussis outcompeted B. pertussis and benefited from its presence in mixed infections, we hypothesized Navitoclax mw that a factor produced by B. pertussis may enhance the virulence of B. parapertussis. A good candidate for this virulence factor is PT, because it is not expressed by B. parapertussis and has been shown to play an important role in the virulence of B. pertussis in this mouse model. We demonstrated previously that the bacterial loads of a PT-deficient strain of B. pertussis (ΔPT) were significantly

higher when present in a mixed infection with wild-type B. pertussis and that an intranasal administration of purified PT up to 2 weeks before inoculation with the ΔPT strain resulted in a significant increase in bacterial infection (Carbonetti et al., 2003). To test the hypothesis that PT enhances B. parapertussis

infection, groups of mice (n=4) were inoculated with 5 × 105 CFU B. pertussis and 5 × 105 CFU B. parapertussis (1 : 1 mix) or 5 × 105 CFU B. parapertussis alone, each inoculum containing either 100 ng PT or an equivalent BMN 673 supplier volume of PBS as a control. Mice were euthanized 7 days postinoculation and the bacterial loads of each pathogen in the respiratory tract were determined. When PT was administered with B. parapertussis alone, a fivefold increase of CFU recovered was observed compared with that recovered from control mice (P=0.04) (Fig. 3a). In the mixed infection, PT addition had no significant effect on the CFU of B. parapertussis (or B. pertussis) recovered (Fig. 3b), which is not surprising because B. pertussis already provides a source of PT during infection. These data support

the conclusion that PT enhances B. parapertussis infection and competition with B. pertussis. Because PT appears to enhance B. parapertussis check details infection of the mouse respiratory tract, we hypothesized that B. parapertussis infection would not be enhanced by coinfection with the PT-deficient strain of B. pertussis (ΔPT). Mice (n=4) were infected with mixed inocula of 5 × 105 CFU of B. parapertussis and 5 × 105 CFU of ΔPT. Two control groups (n=4) were inoculated either with 5 × 105 CFU B. parapertussis or 5 × 105 CFU ΔPT only. Mice were euthanized 7 days postinoculation and the bacterial loads of the two organisms were determined. In the mixed infection, B. parapertussis significantly outcompeted ΔPT, with a mean CI of 188 (P=0.002) (Fig. 4). However, unlike the result observed in mixed infections with wild-type B. pertussis, the recovered CFU of B. parapertussis were not increased by mixed infection with ΔPT, because approximately equal CFU were recovered in mixed and single infections (Fig. 4). These data further support the conclusion that PT enhances B. parapertussis infection during coinfection with wild-type B. pertussis. We found previously that the depletion of resident AM, using intranasally administered CL (Van Rooijen & Sanders, 1994), results in the enhancement of B.