Fig. 4

Pan-caspase inhibitor reduced lung inflammation and IAV-induced mortality. (A) Six to eight weeks old mice were treated with vehicle control or 20 mg/kg body weight Q-VD-Oph intraperitoneally on day − 1 and day 1 of intranasal infection with 100 pfu IAV (H1N1) PR/8/34 strain in 50 µl PBS and were monitored for (B) the percent change in body weight and (C) survival over a period of 14 days post-infection. n = 10/group; N = 2. (D) Lung viral load was analyzed using the median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID₅₀) 5 days post-infection. The lowest detection limit of the TCID₅₀ assay was approximately 10^2 and this has been shown as a dotted line. n = 6–8/group. (E) Microscopic evaluation of vehicle control or Q-VD-Oph-treated lung sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin for histopathological analysis at 5 days post-infection and quantification of inflammation score. The open arrows indicate inflammatory cell infiltration in the alveoli and septa. n = 6/group, Scale bar = 50 μm, error bars indicate mean ± SEM; p < 0.05 was considered significant

The original article has been corrected