4′-Phosphopantetheinyl Transferase PptT, a New Drug Target Required for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Growth and Persistence In Vivo
Figure 6
Effect of PptT depletion on the persistence of M. tuberculosis H37Rv in BALB/c mice.
Mice were infected with strain PMM168 and treated with 0.1 mg/ml doxycycline from 1 day post-infection. Thirty-five days post-infection mice were split in two groups: group 1 continued to receive doxycycline and doxycycline treatment was withdrawn from group 2. Numbers of CFU present in lungs (upper panel) and spleen (lower panel) of treated (closed circles) and of untreated (open circles) mice were determined 1 (D1), 35 (D35), 63 (D63), 91 (D91), 120 (D120) and 160 (D160) days post-infection (experiments 1 and 2, black and blue circles) or 1, 35 and 160 days post-infection (experiment 3, green circles). Each circle represents CFU obtained from one mouse. The dashed line corresponds to the detection limit. When counts in infected mice were below the detection limit, the number of CFU scored was 50 CFU per organ (1.7 log).