Immunopotentiation in infectious disease, II. Effect of bestatin on experimental infection.

A two-stage protocol designed to evaluate putative immunomodulators for use in infectious disease has been proposed. In this report the effect of bestatin on a series of clinically relevant, and sub-lethal infections is described. Pyelonephritis, peritonitis and bacteremia were induced with Escherichia coli, while Klebsiella pneumoniae was used to produce a lung infection. Bestatin had no effect on the course of these infections. In a further experiment we assessed the effect of combined bestatin/antibiotic therapy on the course of renal infection. Again no effect was observed. These findings are consistent with the known immunomodulatory properties of bestatin. This methodology will be used to evaluate selected agents for their potential in infectious disease and should lead to useful clinical protocols.