Figure 3

Rapamycin enhances ESAT-6 responses to primary M. tuberculosis infection and to ESAT-6 vaccination. Rapamycin-treated and untreated old HET3 mice were infected with M. tuberculosis by aerosol. Old DO mice were vaccinated with ESAT-6 plus adjuvant or adjuvant alone. ESAT-6 specific IFN-γ responses the blood of HET3 mice were quantified before and after infection (A). Three weeks after the final vaccination of DO mice, proliferating ESAT-6 specific CD4 T cells (B) and cells capable of ESAT-6 specific IFN-γ (C, D) were determined by ELISPOT. Results are from 12–20 mice per group, reported as average + SEM, analyzed by one-way ANOVA, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, NS not significant.