Neutrophils are implicated in the ineffective immune response of CSOM

The Santa Maria lab, led by Dr Khomtchouk published in Nature Publishing Journal’s Biofilms and Microbiomes assessing the host response to CSOM using multiparameter flow cytometry and a binomial generalized linear machine learning model. We identified a surface marker of mature neutrophils, as the most informative factor of host response driving disease in the CSOM mouse model. Moreover, neutrophil-specific immunomodulatory treatment using the topical neutrophil elastase inhibitor GW 311616A significantly reduced bacterial burden relative to ofloxacin-only treated CSOM.  Together these data strongly implicate neutrophils in the ineffective immune response to P. aeruginosa infection observed in CSOM and suggest that immunomodulation strategies may benefit drug-resistant infections for this disease.