Fig. 2

Adjuvant treatment with dexamethasone plus anti-C5 antibodies reduces mortality in experimental pneumococcal meningitis. Kaplan-Meier survival curves of WT mice inoculated with 10⁷ CFU/ml of S. pneumoniae serotype 3 and treated at 20 h after infection with ceftriaxone (100 mg/kg) in combination with adjuvant treatment. Adjuvant treatment consisted of sterile saline (n = 16; “placebo group”), dexamethasone (0.5 mg/kg, n = 15), a neutralizing antibody against C5 (C5-Ab; 1 mg/mouse; clone BB5.1, n = 31), or dexamethasone plus anti-C5 antibodies in previously mentioned doses (n = 30). a Adjuvant treatment with dexamethasone plus anti-C5 antibodies resulted in a significant reduction in mortality compared to placebo (log-rank P < .001), anti-C5 antibodies, (log-rank P = .039), and dexamethasone (log-rank P = .040). b Adjuvant dexamethasone significantly reduced mortality when all treatments with dexamethasone were compared to all treatments without dexamethasone (log-rank P = .024). c Treatments with anti-C5 antibodies significantly reduced mortality when compared to all treatments without anti-C5 antibodies (log-rank P = .006)