Pooled sera from mice immunized with two doses of 1 μg PCV7 served as the quality control. Goat anti-mouse HRP conjugate was purchased from Southern Technologies (Birmingham, AL). To measure total functional antibodies, a standard opsonophagocytic assay (OPA) described by Romero-Steiner et al. [31] and [32] was utilized. Titers were calculated as the reciprocal dilution at which ≥50% bacterial killing occurred this website in comparison

to complement control wells. To assess differences in functional activity due to species specific phagocytic cells, an alternative OPA protocol using Raw 264.7, mouse monocytes (ATCC) and guinea pig complement (MP Biomedicals, Solon, OH) was also evaluated [15], [33] and [34]. A week after administering

the last dose, mice were intranasally challenged with approximately 1 × 106 CFU of log phase S. pneumoniae serotype 4, 14, or 19A suspended in 10 μl PBS. Challenge doses were later confirmed by counting the overnight growth of a 10-fold serial diluted challenge inoculum [18]. Three to five days post-challenge, each mouse was euthanized and its nasopharyngeal (NP) cavity washed as described by Moreno et al. [26] and Wu et al. [35]. As seen in the study by Moreno et al., control mice significantly cleared pneumococci six days post intranasal challenge [26]. In this study, we found three to five days post-challenge to be the optimal time point in detecting a difference between control and immunized mice. NP washes Casein kinase 1 (100 μl) were collected, diluted with equal volume of saline, and further serially diluted, Vemurafenib in vivo 3-fold, an additional five times in a 96-well plate. Fifty microliters of each dilution was cultured on blood agar plates supplemented with 2.5 mg/L gentamicin. In preliminary studies, mice cleared serotypes 4 and 19A within 4 days and serotype 14 within 5 days post-challenge. Because of these results, NP washes were conducted 3 days post-challenge of serotype 4 or 19A and 4 days post-challenge

with serotype 14. As previously defined, carriage values are the average count of Pnc colony-forming units (cfu) collected in 50 μl of nasal wash [18]. Counts were adjusted for dilution factors prior to averaging. Antibody concentrations were calculated with a 4-parameter logistic equation (ELISA for Windows, CDC). Mean or geometric mean of OPA titers (with log-transformation) and colony counts were calculated. Significant differences, P ≤ 0.05, were determined between two groups using Mann–Whitney rank sum test or t-test, within an experiment using one way analysis of variance on ranks, and for multiple pairwise comparisons using the Student–Newman–Keuls method (SigmaStat software version 2.0; Jandel scientific, Point Richmond, CA). To examine the effect of PCV7 + PsaA co-administration on IgG antibody levels, mouse immune sera were assayed before and after challenge.