FIGURE 6.

Synergistic anti-BA activities of mAbs against S. aureus Hla and SpA. (A) Bacterial loads. A group of 10 mice were each pretreated i.p. with mAbs against Hla and SpA (10 μg/kg) and then challenged intracranially with agarose beads encapsulated with 1 × 10⁵ CFU of S. aureus wild-type Newman strain. The PBS-treated mice served as negative control. Five days after infection, the number of viable organisms associated with BA was determined by quantitative culture. Titers are expressed as the mean log (CFU) per mouse of brain homogenate, ^∗P < 0.05. (B) Histological examination showed BA lesions with similar characteristics developed under treatment with PBS and mAbs. (C) BA volumes. BA volume of each mouse was calculated based on the 3-D structure of BA constructed by using BA histological section slides. n = 6, ^∗∗P < 0.01. (D) Three-dimensional reconstruction of the representative mouse brain showed the location and volume of BA after PBS or mAbs treatment. See 3-D animation in Supplementary Figures S8, S9.