(
A) Summary of mice mortality data in infection model of active
Mtb infection (aerosol) based on survival curves in
Wang et al., 2023 (
B) Details and timeline of the Cornell latency model experiments (see narrative in Methods). (
C) Effects of Atg5 loss on spontaneous reactivation of
M. tuberculosis infection in
Atg5fl/fl Lyz2Cre mice (conditional knockout of Atg5 in myeloid lineage) vs.
Atg5fl/fl (Lyz2Cre-negative control) mice. Mice were infected with an aerosol of
M. tuberculosis (initial deposition, 100–120 CFUs per lung). After a period of 2.5 weeks, initial bacterial growth was assessed by determining lung CFUs (triangles), mice were treated PO with antibiotics (0.1 g/l INH and 0.15 g/l RIF in drinking water) for 8 weeks, bacterial clearance after chemotherapy assessed by determining lung CFUs (open circles), and remaining mice subjected to antibiotic washout for 7 weeks plus spontaneous reactivation period with no treatment of 3 weeks at which time the mice were sacrificed and lung CFUs determined by plating (filled circles). Data and statistics for spontaneous reactivation: means,
†p ≥ 0.05,
t-test;
n = 8 mice per group. (
D) Cornell murine model of
M. tuberculosis latent infection and dexamethasone (DXM) induced reactivation and effects of Atg5 loss in myeloid lineage of Atg5
fl/fl LysM-Cre
+ mice (vs. Atg5
fl/fl LysM-Cre
− control mice). Mice were infected with
M. tuberculosis aerosols (initial lung deposition 100–120 CFUs), bacteria allowed to replicate in vivo, mice subjected to antibiotic regimen, followed by antibiotic washout period, after which immunosuppression with DXM was carried out to reactivate infection/bacterial replication (details in Methods). Data, CFU’s per mouse lungs (means ± SE,
t-test,
n = 10 mice per group).