Layering vaccination with antibiotic therapy results in protection and clearance of in Balb/c mice.

Melioidosis is a disease that is difficult to treat due to the causative organism, being inherently antibiotic resistant and it having the ability to invade, survive, and replicate in an intracellular environment. Combination therapy approaches are routinely being evaluated in animal models with the aim of improving the level of protection and clearance of colonizing bacteria detected. In this study, a subunit vaccine layered with the antibiotic finafloxacin was evaluated against an inhalational infection with in Balb/c mice.

Considerations in the design of animal infection pilot studies.

Ethical research with experimental systems (animals or humans) requires a rationale for the number of subjects to be included in a study. Standard methods for estimating sample size are not fit-for-purpose when the experimenter cannot predict the effect size/outcome with any certainty. These types of studies are often designated "pilot study"; however, there are few guidelines for sample size needed for a pilot study.

Investigation of a combination therapy approach for the treatment of melioidosis.

The efficacy of finafloxacin as a component of a layered defense treatment regimen was determined and against an infection with . Doxycycline was down-selected from a panel of antibiotics evaluated and used in combination with finafloxacin in a Balb/c mouse model of inhalational melioidosis. When treatment was initiated at 24 h post-infection with , there were no differences in the level of protection offered by finafloxacin or doxycycline (as monotherapies) when compared to the combination therapy.