Effect of immunization with novel vaccine candidates on infection with <i>B. pertussis</i> in the lower and upper respiratory tract.

<p>Naïve adult female BALB/c mice were subcutaneously immunized as described in the text and infected intranasally with 2×10⁷ CFU of <i>B. pertussis</i> strain B1917. The bacterial load in the lungs and nose was quantified three (<b>A&C</b>) and seven (<b>B&D</b>) days after challenge. Each symbol represents one mouse. Horizontal lines represents the mean. Dashed lines indicate the lower limit of detection. *<i>p</i><0.05, **<i>p</i><0.005 relative to PBS mice; 2-tailed Mann-Whitney <i>U</i> test.