Evidence Hub

Novel murine model of pneumococcal pneumonia: use of temperature as a measure of disease severity to compare the efficacies of moxifloxacin and levofloxacin

Darrin J. Bast, Mei Yue, Xiaoyan Chen, David S.H. Bell, Linda Dresser, Refik Saskin, Lionel A. Mandell, Donald E. Low et al.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2004

41 citations

Abstract

Surface temperature measured by an infrared temperature-scanning thermometer was used to evaluate disease severity and predict imminent death in a murine model of pneumococcal pneumonia. We showed that a decrease in temperature was associated with increasing severity of disease and concomitant histological changes and also that a temperature of 30 degrees C or less was a predictor of death. Furthermore, viable bacterial counts in the lungs of mice euthanized at a temperature of or = 32 degrees C) at the start of treatment had better clinical and bacteriological outcomes than mice assessed as severely ill (temperature < 32 degrees C). However, moxifloxacin offered better protection and greater bacterial clearance than did levofloxacin in all infected mice independent of disease severity. This model not only allows a more subtle evaluation of drug efficacy but also ensures a better degree of standardization and a more humane approach to drug efficacy studies involving animals.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free