Oseltamivir treatment of mice before or after mild influenza infection reduced cellular and cytokine inflammation in the lung

Abstract

Background Lung inflammation is a critical determinant of influenza infection outcomes but is seldom evaluated in animal studies of oseltamivir (OS), which have focused on viral titre and survival. Objectives To study the effects of pre- and post-infection dosing with OS on viral replication and inflammation in a mouse model of non-lethal influenza infection. Methods BALB/c mice were infected with a laboratory-adapted H3N1 strain of influenza. In pre-dosing studies, OS was gavaged twice daily (1 and 10mg/kg/day) from 4hours prior to infection and continuing for 5days (d) post-infection (p.i). In the second post-infection dosing study, dosing at 10mg/kg/day began at 24-48hours p.i. Mice were ..