Adjuncts to antibacterial therapy.

Strategies of augmenting or attenuating the immune system's response to infection are promising potential methods to enhance antibacterial therapy. Many of these new therapies are natural cytokines, such as the hematopoietic growth factors and interferons, which upregulate the immune response. Other examples include replacement therapies, such as immune globulin, and downregulators of the immune response, such as corticosteroids. In the near future it may be possible to adjust the host response to microbial infection to maximally inhibit the microbe while minimizing inflammatory damage.