Rapamycin modulates pulmonary pathology in a Murine model of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

In this study we employed C3HeB/FeJ mice as an experimental model to investigate the potential role of rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, as an adjunctive therapy candidate during the treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection with moxifloxacin. We report that administration of rapamycin with or without moxifloxacin reduced infection-induced lung inflammation, and the number and size of caseating necrotic granulomas. Results from this study strengthen the potential use of rapamycin and its analogs as adjunct TB therapy and importantly underscore the utility of the C3HeB/FeJ mouse model as a pre-clinical tool to evaluate HDT candidates in TB treatment.