Figure 4.

Starting treatment of B6D2F1 with anti-TNFα antibody after infection is controlled still results in progressive Coccidioides disease. B6D2F1 mice were treated with 500 μg isotype control (black symbols) or anti-TNFα antibody (green symbols) starting on day 42 after infection with ~50 arthroconidia of Cp1038; dosing was continued on an alternating q3/4d schedule. And 28 days after the start of anti-TNFα therapy, a subset of mice (n = 8/group) was sacrificed, and lung (A) and spleen (B) fungal burdens were determined by serial dilution. The remaining mice (n = 10/group) were followed for disease progression (C). Treatment timelines are indicated by colored lines below the survival graph. Data are represented as mean with standard deviation. At the planned end of the experiment (105 days), surviving mice were sacrificed and lung (D) and spleen (E) fungal burdens were determined by serial dilution. Differences in fungal burden were tested for significance using a Kruskal–Wallis on log-transformed data. Survival differences were determined using Mantel–Cox.