Short report

CpG oligodeoxyribonucleotides protect mice from Burkholderia pseudomallei but not Francisella tularensis Schu S4 aerosols

David A Rozak¹ , Herbert C Gelhaus^1,3 , Mark Smith² , Mojgan Zadeh^1,4 , Louis Huzella² , David Waag¹ and Jeffrey J Adamovicz^1,5

¹  Bacteriology Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA

²  Pathology Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA

³  Battelle Biomedical Research Center, Battelle Memorial Institute, West Jefferson, Ohio, USA

⁴  Department of Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA

⁵  Center for Biological Safety and Security, Midwest Research Institute, Frederick, Maryland, USA

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Journal of Immune Based Therapies and Vaccines 2010, 8:2doi:10.1186/1476-8518-8-2

Published:	5 February 2010

Abstract

Studies have shown that CpG oligodeoxyribonucleotides (ODN) protect mice from various bacterial pathogens, including Burkholderia pseudomallei and Francisella tularensis live vaccine strain (LVS), when administered before parenteral challenge. Given the potential to develop CpG ODN as a pre-treatment for multiple bacterial biological warfare agents, we examined survival, histopathology, and cytokine data from CpG ODN-treated C57BL/6 mice to determine whether previously-reported protection extended to aerosolized B. pseudomallei 1026b and highly virulent F. tularensis Schu S4 infections. We found that, although CpG ODN protected mice from aerosolized B. pseudomallei challenges, the immunostimulant failed to benefit the animals exposed to F. tularensis Schu S4 aerosols. Our results, which contrast with earlier F. tularensis LVS studies, highlight potential differences in Francisella species pathogenesis and underscore the need to evaluate immunotherapies against human pathogenic species.