Preliminary experiments in mice using invasive (clinical isolate, KEI 1025) and cytotoxic (ATCC strain 19660) pseudomonas strains, revealed that treatment reduced HMGB1 levels, bacterial plate count, inflammatory consequences and disease outcome, when given prophylactically and, most importantly, when topical treatment was delayed for 6 hours after infection (Hazlett, unpublished data). The gene discussed is HMGB1; the disease is infection.