Fig. 1.

Mucosally administered CLDC immunotherapy generates rapid protection against F. tularensis pneumonia. BALB/c mice (n = 5 per group) were administered CLDC by the i.n. route, as described in Section 2, or were sham-treated with diluent (5% dextrose water) alone. Twenty-four hours later, mice were subjected to i.n. challenge with 10⁵ CFU F. tularensis LVS, as described in Section 2. In (a) survival times for each group of mice were plotted using a Kaplan–Meier curve. In (b), organ bacterial burdens were determined on day 6 after bacterial challenge, as noted in Section 2. Bacterial burden in all 3 organs assessed were significantly lower in CLDC-treated mice than diluent treated mice as assessed by Student’s two-tailed t test (***p < 0.001). Group means are plotted (±SD). Each experiment was repeated once with similar results.